Rescuers battle to find Turkish quake survivors

Search and rescue operations yesterday tried to free hundreds of victims believed to still be trapped in the rubble of buildings destroyed by the powerful earthquake that shook mainly Kurdish south-eastern Turkey.

Hasimoglu’s daughter, Hattice, 23, had been waiting for a friend at visit when the earthquake struck on Sunday.

On Monday afternoon Hattice, another woman and a four year old girl, Bele Naji, remained trapped inside. “The rescuers have detected a voice, but I don’t know if it is her,” said Constanze. A phone call immediately after the quake was the last she had heard from her daughter.

“She said ‘Hello, hello’ and then the line went dead.”

“She is a sweet, kind girl. She is easily scared. When they would shake the desks at school to simulate an earthquake Hattice would flee the room. I don’t know how she can survive this,” said close friend Aishe Minas.

Prime minister Tayyip Erdogan flew to Van to assess the scale of the disaster, in a quake-prone area that is a hotbed of activity for Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, against which his government is currently conducting an offensive.

Mr Erdogan said he feared for the fate of villages with houses made of mud brick, saying: “Almost all buildings in such villages are destroyed.”

Many of the buildings in the remote towns dotting the mountainous area close to the Iranian border where the quake struck, were indeed too ramshackle to withstand the tremors.

Across the provincial capital Van – which has a population of 500,000 – and in Ercis, 13 miles from the epicentre of the earthquake, dozens of buildings were flattened.

Rescue dogs combed the debris for signs of life. Mechanical diggers dug through the concrete, pausing to allow rescuers to listen for sounds of life. Men moved in with pick axes when they thought they had located trapped survivors.

“Today we pulled out eleven people. Most were in terrible conditions,” said Dr Ekin Tasatan of Turkey’s Search and Rescue team UMKE – a national organisation of professional medical volunteers. “I had to amputate the arm of a nurse trapped in her building using my knife. A concrete block had fallen on her arm. She was not stable and we had to do something.”

Cries rang out as residents discovered their loved ones had perished.

An elderly man collapsed to the ground, overcome by grief and shock as he learnt of the death of his two daughters.

Scientists from Turkey’s Kandil earthquake institute said that up to 1,000 people may have lost their lives during the 7.2-magnitude quake. Last night, the hospital in Ercis had listed 291 fatalities.

“The situation is very serious. There are still many trapped underneath, it may take us days of searching” said Duncis Genger from UMKE. “There are too many sad stories. This morning we found a newlywed couple dead in a building, they were still embracing each other.”

In Vans and in Ercis, residents milled the streets, too fearful of aftershocks to return homes. Families erected tents on the streets, lighting fires against the bitterly cold mountain weather. In a side alley a group of men fought over tarpaulins.

Sens Tuns, 33, was at a wedding when the earthquake had hit. “The food flew everywhere, and the music system exploded. Guests threw themselves under the tables, and ran outside in panic. I am too frightened to go back into a building. Tonight I will take my family to sleep in a mud hut village near here.”

The Turkish Red Crescent reacted swiftly to the disaster, erecting tents on synthetic football pitch in Ercis. Families joined long queues for hot meals of pasta and beans.

“We have over 111 tents set up, and each houses ten people,” said Red Crescent co-ordinator Durcad Sayenaj. “Those that have homes to return to can leave as soon as the aftershocks decline. Those whose homes were destroyed will move to temporary accommodation.”