IZMIR, Turkey – Rescue teams in western Turkey pulled a 70-year-old man out of collapsed construction on Sunday, about 34 hours after a strong earthquake in the Aegean Sea hit Turkey and Greece, killing at least 75 other people and injuring about 1,000. other people. .
The man came out of the rubble overnight and is fine in a hospital, according to Turkey’s fitness minister. The minister tweeted that the survivor, Ahmet Citim, had told him, “I have never given up hope. “The operation that stored Citim as the newest in a series of notable rescues after Friday afternoon’s earthquake.
But on the third day since the disaster, the search and rescue groups gave the impression of locating more bodies than survivors in Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city. They continued to search for eight downed buildings, but the paintings stopped at one of them when the government made peace. In our minds, the broken design of the door next door was also at risk, forcing rescuers and those waiting outside to retreat.
The earthquake focused on the northeastErn Aegean Sea of the Greek island of Samos and Turkey’s presidency for Disaster and Emergency Management (AFAD) raised the death toll in Izmir Province to 73 on Sunday.
The earthquake killed two teenagers in Samos and injured at least 19 others on the island.
There is a debate about the magnitude of the earthquake: the U. S. Geological Survey estimated it at 7. 0, while the Kandilli Institute in Istanbul estimated it at 6. 9 and AFAD said it measured 6. 6.
The earthquake triggered a small tsunami that hit Samos and the Seferihisar district of Izmir, drowning an old woman. The tremors were felt in western Turkey, plunged into Istanbul as in the Greek capital of Athens. Hundreds of aftershocks followed.
Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said 26 squat buildings would be demolished in Izmir.
“It’s the earthquake that kills the lives of buildings,” he added, repeating a not unusual motto.
Turkey has a set of old buildings and reasonable or illegal buildings, which can cause serious injury and death in the event of an earthquake. Regulations have been tightened in the event of earthquakes or demolition of buildings and urban renovation is underway in Turkish cities, however, this does not descend fast enough.
Two destroyed apartment buildings in Izmir, where much of the rescues are taking place, had obtained reports of “deterioration” in 2012 and 2018, according to the municipal firm guilty of those certificates. Turkish media, they added the Hurriyet newspaper, said one of the departments, built in 1993, threatened to be broken by an earthquake due to its poor concrete quality and lack of reinforcements, however, construction remained busy.
A 73-year-old survivor of one of the buildings said she was on her third-floor balcony when the earthquake struck and believes there were at least 50 other people in the building, who also had a coffee on the floor.
“During the first tremor, nothing happened. During the moment of the tremor, the seventh, sixth and fourth floors fell on most others like a sandwich,” Suzan Dere said. “The construction collapsed into a cloud of dust in the street with a very loud noise It all happened in a minute.
Turkey’s justice minister said prosecutors had begun investigating several collapsed buildings and promised legal repercussions if experts knew the negligence.
AFAD said nearly 6,400 more people were activated for rescue operations and many more for food distribution, emergency assistance and construction damage control.
Turkey is fault-prone and prone to earthquakes. In 1999, two strong earthquakes killed another 18,000 people in northwestern Turkey. Earthquakes are also not unusual in Greece.
In a rare show of unity amid months of tension over power resources in the eastern Mediterranean, officials from the Greek and Turkish governments issued messages of mutual solidarity in the face of the earthquake.
On Sunday, Pope Francis asked the faithful to pray for the other inhabitants of the Aegean Sea.
The earthquake occurred at a time when Turkey was already suffering from an economic recession and the coronavirus pandemic. Turkey has so far more than 10,000 virus deaths, however, some experts have accused the government of hiding the true effect of the virus with the way it counts new cases.
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Bilginsoy reported from Istanbul. Contributed Ayse Wieting and Robert Badendieck in Istanbul and Frances D’Emilio in Rome.
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