Strong earthquake hits Turkey and Greece

Rescue teams pulled a 70-year-old man from a collapsed building in western Turkey, some 34 hours after a strong earthquake in the Aegean Sea struck Turkey and Greece, killing at least 51 and injuring more than 900. people.

Turkey’s Presidency of Emergency and Disaster Management, or AFAD, raised the death toll in Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city, to 49 when rescuers pulled more bodies from collapsed buildings. Two teenagers died on the Greek island of Samos and at least 19 others were injured.

The earthquake on Friday afternoon, 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 10 miles. A small tsunami was triggered in Izmir’s Seferihisar district, drowning an old woman, and on the Greek island. The tremors were felt throughout western Turkey, including in Istanbul, as well as in the Greek capital, Athens. Hundreds of aftershocks followed.

AFAD said 896 people were injured in Turkey. Ahmet Citim, 70, was pulled out of the rubble shortly after midnight Sunday and was hospitalized. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted that the man said: “I never lost hope.”

Search and rescue teams continued to work on nine buildings in Izmir at dawn on the third day. AFAD said that more than 5,700 employees of state agencies, municipalities and non-governmental organizations had been activated for rescue work and hundreds more for food distribution, psychosocial assistance and building damage control. “If they are alive, we have a good chance of reaching them for 72 hours,” Vice President Fuat Oktay told reporters. “God willing, it will be like this.”

Dogs, cats and rabbits were also rescued from the rubble. 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.

In a show of solidarity rare in recent months of tense bilateral relations, Greek and Turkish government officials issued messages of solidarity to each other over the past two days. Turkey, which suffered the most fatalities and damage, thanked other countries and international organizations for their statements of support.

The earthquake occurred when Turkey was already battling an economic recession and the coronavirus pandemic.

So far, more than 10,000 people with the virus have died in Turkey.

– AP