Many feared dead after powerful earthquake strikes Turkish city

As many as 1,000 people were feared dead last night after a powerful earthquake struck south-eastern Turkey, destroying dozens of buildings and trapping some victims alive under the debris.

As night fell, emergency workers battled to dig people out of the rubble in the city of Van and surrounding districts. Civilians joined in the desperate search, using their bare hands and working under generator-powered floodlights.

“We heard cries and groaning from underneath the debris, we are waiting for the rescue teams to arrive,” Halil Celik said as he stood beside the ruins of building that had collapsed before his eyes.

“All of a sudden, a quake tore down the building in front of me. All the bystanders, we all ran to the building and rescued two injured people from the ruins.”

At another site, three teenagers were believed trapped under a collapsed building. People clambered over the shattered masonry, shouting: “Is there anyone there?”

An elderly rescue worker sat sobbing, his exhausted face covered in dust. Ambulance crews sat waiting to help anyone dragged out of the debris.

Turkey’s Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute said the magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck at 10:41 GMT and was three miles deep.

A dozen buildings collapsed in Van city, close to the Iranian border, and more were brought to the ground in the nearby district of Ercis, deputy prime minister Besir Atalay told reporters.

“We estimate around 1,000 buildings are damaged and our estimate is for hundreds of lives lost. It could be 500 or 1,000,” Kandilli Observatory general manager Mustafa Erdik said.

Hospital sources in Ercis, a town near the quake’s epicentre, said there were more than 50 dead bodies at one hospital and that 405 people had been wounded.

The quake was among the strongest in Turkish history, and the worst since 1999.

Prime minister Tayyip Erdogan was travelling to Van and the cabinet was expected to discuss the quake this morning.

“A lot of buildings collapsed, many people were killed, but we don’t know the number. We are waiting for emergency help, it’s very urgent,” Zulfukar Arapoglu, the mayor of Ercis, said.

“We need tents urgently and rescue teams. We don’t have any ambulances, and we only have one hospital. We have many killed and injured.”

Dozens of emergency workers and residents scrambled over a multi-storey building in Van as they searched for anyone trapped inside.

International offers of aid poured in from Nato, China, Japan, the United States, Azerbaijan, European countries and Israel, whose ties with Ankara have soured since Israeli commandoes killed nine Turks during a raid on an aid flotilla bound for the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip in 2010.

Major geological fault lines cross Turkey and there are small earthquakes almost daily. Two large quakes in 1999 killed more than 20,000 people in northwest Turkey.