Turkey quake: Desperate hunt for survivors as mercury drops

Ercis: Rescuers scrambled today to find survivors of the earthquake that killed at least 272 people in Turkey as residents readied to spend a second night outside in the freezing cold.

People living in the eastern Van province issued cries for help on Twitter, giving out addresses of collapsed buildings and phone numbers of people trapped under the debris.

Hundreds of rescuers worked around the clock in the town of Ercis and surrounding villages, as scores of ambulances and medical supplies were rushed to the area. The confirmed death toll from the 7.2 magnitude earthquake which struck around lunchtime on 23 October in Van province, stood at 272, according to Interior Minister Idris Naim Sener. An earlier estimate put the toll at 264. Some 1,300 people were injured, according to Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc.

“We couldn’t understand what was going on — all of a sudden there was dust everywhere; our eyes were full of dust, and we were thrown against the walls and furniture. It lasted 20 seconds,” said Ercis resident Yunus Ozmen. “We spent the night outside on the street and made a fire to keep warm,” said the 23-year-old, as he recounted the moment when disaster struck, forcing many to spend the night in freezing temperatures outdoors. His neighbour Abdul Hadi Isik said that his aunt and her children were buried under the rubble. “There is no hope left,” he added.

A 16-year-old girl, Hilal, was pulled smiling from the wreckage of her house, and two children were plucked alive from a collapsed building in Ercis, but it was an otherwise grim day for rescuers combing through the rubble.

Some 169 people were killed in Ercis, while 95 died in the Van city centre, the Anatolia news agency quoted Sener as saying. A total of 970 buildings collapsed as a result of the quake and the aftershocks, including a dormitory in Ercis, under which many students are believed to be buried.

Around 1,200 rescue officials are working in the town of Ercis, according to the local crisis centre. Residents readied to spend a second night outside in the freezing cold, with nighttime temperatures expected to dip to two degrees Celsius and snow forecast for Wednesday.

The town’s football pitch had been transformed into a sea of tents set up by the Red Crescent, a field hospital was erected in its stadium and some 1,500 units of blood have been sent to the region.

Some 2,400 search and rescue teams from 45 cities and more than 200 ambulances have rushed to the region, according to the government.

The military said six battalions were also involved in search and rescue efforts. Six helicopters, including four helicopter ambulances, as well as C-130 military cargo planes were dispatched to the area carrying tents, food and medicine.

By midday, Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said that rescuers had managed to get access to all the quake-hit zones in Van province, including remote villages. “There is a decrease in the number of injured people who are being brought to here,” said Niyazi Celik, the doctor in charge of the field hospital in Ercis. “We can expect the death toll to increase but it would not exceed a few dozen more,” Celik said.

Atalay said 29 villages and 40 percent of Ercis town were without power. Many of Ercis’ residents fled town while police and soldiers kept watch around crumbled buildings to prevent looting.

AFP