More dead after earthquake in Turkey: “Still terrified”

From: Sophie stigfur

Published: October 31, 2020 at 7:52 p.m.
Updated: October 31, 2020 at 11:16 p.m.

IZMIR. The death toll from the earthquake disaster rises as the rescue service searches the ruins of twenty collapsed skyscrapers.
Up to 470 replicas have been measured.
– We are still very afraid of what might happen, says Ceren Ersenler, 19 years old.

It’s unclear how many are still among the concrete masses in what as recently as Friday morning was an eight-story house full of apartments. One thing is for sure, according to aid worker Okan Simsek.

– We will continue until we find everyone.

He is one of those assisting some thirty first responders who are drilling and digging in what remains of one of the twenty skyscrapers that collapsed when an earthquake shook both Turkey and Greece at lunchtime on Friday.

Movies and images of the powerful earthquake show the tallest buildings being pulverized in just seconds. There was chaos in the streets on Friday, many ran to escape the tsunami that followed and residents of the coastal city of Izmir, who were the hardest hit, were urged to stay on the streets and squares so as not to risk being buried. .

Find more and more dead

According to the Turkish authorities, up to 470 aftershocks have been measured.

The death toll, which was initially four people, had risen to 27 by Saturday morning. Later on Saturday night, President Erdogan claims 37 bodies have now been found in the landslides. The number of injured has risen to 900, another hundred people in a single day.

In the Bayraklı district it is one of the most affected buildings. Rescue workers, bulldozers, dogs and civilians lifting concrete blocks and gravel with their bare hands.

On the other side of the barricades: hundreds of hopeful locals, who continue the search for life.

– I was very scared when it happened, I hugged my mother tightly and felt that I wanted to leave. “We are still very afraid of what might happen,” says 19-year-old Ceren Ersenler, who is watching the intense rescue work.

A slightly stronger earthquake is not expected in the next few days according to forecasts. But the concern after the biggest earthquake in the area in 52 years is palpable.

Photo: Magnus Wennman

Rescue workers in demolished buildings on the outskirts of Izmir.

Seven registered buildings

According to President Erdogan, a total of 103 people have so far been rescued from the collapsed skyscrapers. But there is still no estimate of how many people are missing.

Seven of the buildings are now considered registered. But despite the great pain and anxiety, a hopeful atmosphere rests on the streets of the Turkish coastal city.

On Saturday morning, cheers were heard in Bayraklı as a 16-year-old girl and her dog, Fistik, were rescued alive after being buried during Masses for 17 hours.

When Aftonbladet is in place, shouts of joy and applause resound as aid workers announce they hear a voice under the crushed concrete blocks.

Earlier in the day, many people’s hearts warmed when rescuers managed to pull out an entire family, a mother with four children between the ages of 3 and 10, by drilling a hallway into the fallen concrete blocks. When the children were brought out, one by one, the rescuers hugged them to applause.

The ten-year-old girl was talking as she was taken to the ambulance.

– I feel good, I was saved because only one of my feet was stuck, the girl said according to the Daily Mail.

Sleeping in a tent

Izmir residents whose houses have been damaged or cracked are urged not to return. Instead, they spend another night in makeshift tents set up by aid organizations or in one of the mosques that have opened their doors to provide shelter for all those who have been made homeless in the blink of an eye.

The earthquake also killed two people on the other side of the water. On the Greek island of Samos, two teenagers on their way to school were killed when a wall of the house fell on them. At least 19 people were injured in the Samos earthquake.

Published: October 31, 2020 at 7:52 p.m.