The death toll rises to 28 in the earthquake that struck Turkey and a Greek island

On Saturday, rescue teams smashed through concrete blocks and the rubble of eight collapsed buildings in search of survivors of a powerful earthquake that shook the Aegean coast of Turkey and the northern Greek island of Samos, killing at least 28 people. More than 800 people were injured.

The earthquake struck on Friday afternoon (local time), knocking down buildings in Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city, and causing a small tsunami in the Seferihisar district and on Samos. The earthquake was followed by hundreds of aftershocks.

Early Saturday, onlookers cheered as rescuers pulled teenager Inci Okan out of the rubble of a devastated eight-story apartment block in Izmir’s Bayrakli district. His dog, Fistik, was also rescued, the Sozcu newspaper reported. Friends and family waited outside the building for news of loved ones still trapped inside, including employees of a dental clinic that was located on the ground floor.

In another collapsed building, rescuers contacted a 38-year-old woman and her four children, 3, 7 and 10-year-old twins, and were working to clear a hallway to get them out, state Anadolu Agency. reported.

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Two other women, 53 and 35, were pulled from the rubble of another collapsed two-story building earlier Saturday.

In total, around 100 people have been rescued since the earthquake, Murat Kurum, minister for the environment and urban planning, told reporters. It was unclear how many more people were trapped under the buildings that were razed.

Some 5,000 rescue personnel were working on the ground, Kurum said.

At least 26 people died in Izmir, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted. Among them was an old woman who drowned.

Turkey’s Presidency of Emergency and Disaster Management, or AFAD, said 831 were injured in Izmir and three other provinces. The Health Minister said 25 of them were in intensive care.

Two teenagers died on Samos after being hit by a collapsing wall. At least 19 people were injured on the island, two, including a 14-year-old boy, were flown to Athens and seven were hospitalized on the island, health authorities said.

The small tsunami that hit the Turkish coast also affected Samos, with seawater flooding the streets of the main port city of Vathi. Authorities warned people to stay away from the shoreline and potentially damaged buildings.

The earthquake, which according to the Istanbul-based Kandilli Institute had a magnitude of 6.9, was centered in the Aegean northeast of Samos. AFAD said it measured 6.6 and struck at a depth of about 16 km.

It was felt throughout the eastern Greek islands and as far as Athens and Bulgaria. In Turkey, it shook the Aegean and Marmara regions, including Istanbul. The governor of Istanbul said there were no reports of damage in the city, Turkey’s largest.

Turkey is riddled with faults and prone to earthquakes. In 1999, two powerful earthquakes killed about 18,000 people in northwestern Turkey. Earthquakes are also frequent in Greece.

Authorities warned Izmir residents not to return to the damaged buildings, saying they could collapse in strong aftershocks. Many people spent the night on the streets, too scared to return to their homes, even if they were not harmed, the DHA news agency reported.

In a show of solidarity rare in recent months of tense bilateral relations, Greek and Turkish government officials delivered mutual messages of solidarity while the leaders of Greece and Turkey held a telephone conversation.

“I thank President Erdogan for his positive response to my appeal,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Saturday before traveling to Samos.

Relations between Turkey and Greece have been particularly tense, with both warships clashing in the eastern Mediterranean in a dispute over maritime borders and energy exploration rights. The current tension has led to fears of open conflict between the two neighbors and NATO’s nominal allies.