Turkey Earthquake 2011 - More than 100 people were confirmed killed and hundreds more feared dead Sunday when a powerful earthquake hit southeast Turkey, flattening buildings and leaving survivors crying for help from under the rubble.
As a cold night fell, survivors and emergency workers battled to pull hundreds of people believed to be buried under debris in the city of Van and town of Ercis, where a student dormitory collapsed.
Residents in Van joined in a frantic search, using hands and shovels and working under floodlights and flashlights, hearing voices of people buried alive calling from under mounds of broken concrete in pitch darkness and freezing temperatures.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who traveled by helicopter to the area to see firsthand the scale of Turkey's worst earthquake in a decade, told a nationally televised news conference at least 138 people had been killed -- 93 in Van city center and 45 in Ercis. The toll was expected to rise.
"The most important problem now is in the villages close to Van city center because the buildings are made of adobe. They are more vulnerable to quakes. I must say that almost all buildings in such villages are destroyed."
He said people were still trapped under rubble but gave no figure. An official at the Van provincial crisis center told Reuters up to 600 people had been injured and 300-400 were missing, feared buried beneath rubble of collapsed buildings.
Read further HERE.
As a cold night fell, survivors and emergency workers battled to pull hundreds of people believed to be buried under debris in the city of Van and town of Ercis, where a student dormitory collapsed.
Residents in Van joined in a frantic search, using hands and shovels and working under floodlights and flashlights, hearing voices of people buried alive calling from under mounds of broken concrete in pitch darkness and freezing temperatures.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who traveled by helicopter to the area to see firsthand the scale of Turkey's worst earthquake in a decade, told a nationally televised news conference at least 138 people had been killed -- 93 in Van city center and 45 in Ercis. The toll was expected to rise.
"The most important problem now is in the villages close to Van city center because the buildings are made of adobe. They are more vulnerable to quakes. I must say that almost all buildings in such villages are destroyed."
He said people were still trapped under rubble but gave no figure. An official at the Van provincial crisis center told Reuters up to 600 people had been injured and 300-400 were missing, feared buried beneath rubble of collapsed buildings.
Read further HERE.