51 killed in big Turkish quake as many homes turn to rubble
Source: Agencies |
March 9, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A STRONG, pre-dawn earthquake with a preliminary Richter magnitude of 6.0 struck eastern Turkey yesterday, killing 51 people as it knocked down stone and mud-brick houses and minarets in five villages.
The earthquake surprised many people as they slept, crumpling buildings into piles of rubble.
Panicked survivors fled into the narrow village streets, some climbing out of windows, as nearly 80 aftershocks measuring up to 5.5 and 5.3 rattled the region.
The Kandilli seismology center said the quake hit at 4:32am local time near the village of Basyurt in Elazig Province, about 550 kilometers east of the Turkish capital of Ankara.
The government initially put the death toll at 57 but later lowered it to 51. About 34 people were being treated for injuries, Turkey's Crisis Center said.
The worst-hit area was the village of Okcular, where 17 died.
As relatives rushed in for news of their loved ones, authorities blocked off the area so ambulances and rescue teams could maneuver on the village's narrow roads. Residents lit fires to keep warm in the winter cold.
"The village is totally flattened," its administrator, Hasan Demirdag, told private NTV television.
Ali Riza Ferhat of Okcular said he was woken up by the jolt.
"I tried to get out of the door but it wouldn't open," he told NTV television. "I came out of the window and started helping my neighbors. We removed six bodies."
TV footage showed rescue workers and soldiers in Okcular lifting debris as villagers looked on. Rescuers dug into the dirt to find the body of an elderly man and quickly covered him with a sheet. Two women sat on mattresses wrapped in blankets.
The temblor also knocked down barns, killing farm animals.
Another 13 people were killed in the village of Yukari Demirci, Governor Muammer Erol said, adding that by noon everyone had been removed from the rubble.
"Everything has been knocked down ... there is not a stone in place," said Yadin Apaydin, administrator for the village of Yukari Kanatli, where he said at least three people died.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kandilli Observatory's Director, Mustafa Erdik, urged residents not to enter any damaged homes, warning they could topple from aftershocks that could last for days.
Schools closed
Erdogan blamed the region's mud-brick buildings for the many deaths and said the government had instructed its housing agency to construct quake-proof homes in the area.
He said ambulance helicopters, prefabricated homes and mobile kitchens were being sent, and Turkey's Red Crescent aid group rushed in tents and blankets.
The quake was also felt in the neighboring provinces of Tunceli, Bingol and Diyarbakir, where residents fled to the streets and stayed outdoors.
Schools have been closed for two days in the region. In Tunceli Province, students were sent home after school walls cracked, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, much of which lies on top of two main fault lines.
In 1999, two powerful earthquakes struck northwestern Turkey, killing about 18,000 people. In 2003 a quake killed 83 children when a school dormitory collapsed in Bingol.
The Elazig quake followed deadly temblors in Haiti and Chile, but Bernard Doft, the seismologist for the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute in Utrecht, said there was no direct connection between the three.
"These events are too far apart to be of direct influence to each other," he said.
Richard Luckett, a seismologist from the British Geological Survey, said there had not been a spike in global seismic activity.
"If there was a big increase in the number of magnitude 6.0s in the past decade we would know it because we would see it in the statistics," Luckett said. "We haven't seen an increase in 7.0s either."
He said scientists often saw strong quakes but they don't get reported because the damage or death toll was minimal. "The point is that earthquakes are common and always have been," Luckett said.
The earthquake surprised many people as they slept, crumpling buildings into piles of rubble.
Panicked survivors fled into the narrow village streets, some climbing out of windows, as nearly 80 aftershocks measuring up to 5.5 and 5.3 rattled the region.
The Kandilli seismology center said the quake hit at 4:32am local time near the village of Basyurt in Elazig Province, about 550 kilometers east of the Turkish capital of Ankara.
The government initially put the death toll at 57 but later lowered it to 51. About 34 people were being treated for injuries, Turkey's Crisis Center said.
The worst-hit area was the village of Okcular, where 17 died.
As relatives rushed in for news of their loved ones, authorities blocked off the area so ambulances and rescue teams could maneuver on the village's narrow roads. Residents lit fires to keep warm in the winter cold.
"The village is totally flattened," its administrator, Hasan Demirdag, told private NTV television.
Ali Riza Ferhat of Okcular said he was woken up by the jolt.
"I tried to get out of the door but it wouldn't open," he told NTV television. "I came out of the window and started helping my neighbors. We removed six bodies."
TV footage showed rescue workers and soldiers in Okcular lifting debris as villagers looked on. Rescuers dug into the dirt to find the body of an elderly man and quickly covered him with a sheet. Two women sat on mattresses wrapped in blankets.
The temblor also knocked down barns, killing farm animals.
Another 13 people were killed in the village of Yukari Demirci, Governor Muammer Erol said, adding that by noon everyone had been removed from the rubble.
"Everything has been knocked down ... there is not a stone in place," said Yadin Apaydin, administrator for the village of Yukari Kanatli, where he said at least three people died.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kandilli Observatory's Director, Mustafa Erdik, urged residents not to enter any damaged homes, warning they could topple from aftershocks that could last for days.
Schools closed
Erdogan blamed the region's mud-brick buildings for the many deaths and said the government had instructed its housing agency to construct quake-proof homes in the area.
He said ambulance helicopters, prefabricated homes and mobile kitchens were being sent, and Turkey's Red Crescent aid group rushed in tents and blankets.
The quake was also felt in the neighboring provinces of Tunceli, Bingol and Diyarbakir, where residents fled to the streets and stayed outdoors.
Schools have been closed for two days in the region. In Tunceli Province, students were sent home after school walls cracked, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, much of which lies on top of two main fault lines.
In 1999, two powerful earthquakes struck northwestern Turkey, killing about 18,000 people. In 2003 a quake killed 83 children when a school dormitory collapsed in Bingol.
The Elazig quake followed deadly temblors in Haiti and Chile, but Bernard Doft, the seismologist for the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute in Utrecht, said there was no direct connection between the three.
"These events are too far apart to be of direct influence to each other," he said.
Richard Luckett, a seismologist from the British Geological Survey, said there had not been a spike in global seismic activity.
"If there was a big increase in the number of magnitude 6.0s in the past decade we would know it because we would see it in the statistics," Luckett said. "We haven't seen an increase in 7.0s either."
He said scientists often saw strong quakes but they don't get reported because the damage or death toll was minimal. "The point is that earthquakes are common and always have been," Luckett said.
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