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Race against time to find survivors after the deadly 7.0 earthquake in the Aegean Sea toppled 20 buildings and injured hundreds.
Rescue teams pulled a 70-year-old man from a collapsed building in western Turkey after a powerful earthquake struck Turkey and Greece on Friday, killing at least 51 and injuring 896 people.
Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay raised the death toll in Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city, as rescuers pulled more bodies out of demolished buildings.
Two teenagers died on Friday on the Greek island of Samos and at least 19 others were injured.
Ahmet Citim, 70, was rescued from the rubble shortly after midnight Sunday and taken to hospital. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted that the man said: “I never lost hope.”
A total of 682 victims have been discharged from hospitals, while 214 remain in treatment. There have been 850 aftershocks, 40 of which are stronger than 4.0, said Turkey’s disaster and emergency agency AFAD.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in Izmir to monitor the rescue efforts.
Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Izmir, said that 20 improperly constructed buildings had completely collapsed.
“The rescue teams are trying to hear a sign of life from the survivors under the rubble. They say that some 40 people were trapped under the rubble, but some were rescued and others died. The more time passes, the less chance there is of finding victims, ”he said.
Friday’s earthquake, which according to the United States Geological Survey had a magnitude of 7.0, had its epicenter in the Aegean northeast of the island of Samos. AFAD said it struck at a depth of about 16 kilometers (10 miles).
A small tsunami was triggered in Izmir’s Seferihisar district, drowning an old woman, and on the Greek island.
People pass a building damaged after the earthquake in the Aegean port city of Izmir. [Kemal Aslan/Reuters]
The tremors were felt throughout western Turkey, including in Istanbul, as well as in the Greek capital, Athens. Hundreds of aftershocks followed.
Search and rescue teams continued to work on nine buildings in Izmir as the third day dawned.
On Saturday, a mother and three of her children were brought to safety after being trapped for nearly 18 hours under a building in Izmir that had been crushed by the earthquake.
One of the children succumbed to his injuries later in hospital, Koca told reporters.
People watch the rescue operations after the earthquake that struck the coastal province of Izmir [Kemal Aslan/Reuters]
Rescue teams were continuing efforts to free the woman’s fourth child.
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.
The earthquake occurred when Turkey was already battling an economic recession and the coronavirus pandemic. So far, more than 10,000 people infected with the virus have died in Turkey.
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