TURKEY: Emergency workers battle to pull out a toddler alive from debris of a collapsed building

Record ID: 830651

  • Title: TURKEY: Emergency workers battle to pull out a toddler alive from debris of a collapsed building
  • Date: 25th October 2011
  • Summary: ERCIS, TURKEY (OCTOBER 24, 2011) (ORGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) TODDLER CARRIED BY RESCUE WORKER RESCUE WORKER HOLDING TODDLER
  • Embargoed: 9th November 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey, Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Disasters
  • Reuters ID: LVACY5M6W91X6N716BP2EVWHTAQZ
  • Story Text: A toddler was rescued alive from rubble of a collapsed building on Monday (October 24) after an earthquake struck parts of southeast Turkey, where rescue teams worked through the night to try to free survivors crying for help from under rubble.
    More than 200 people were confirmed killed and hundreds more feared dead after an earthquake hit parts of southeast Turkey. Rescue teams worked until morning to free survivors crying out for help from under rubble.
    A tent city was set up at the Ercis sports stadium. Access to the region was made more difficult as the earthquake caused the partial collapse of the main road between Van and Ercis. The military issued a statement saying two battalions had been sent to assist the relief operations.
    Soldiers were deployed in the town to help rescuers and digging machines had also arrived to help.
    The Red Crescent said a team of about 100 expert personnel had arrived at the earthquake zone to coordinate operations. Some 4,000 tents and 11,000 blankets, stoves and food were being distributed to help fight off the cold.
    In Van province officials scrambled to provide shelter for people rendered homeless or too afraid to go home while the aftershocks continued with alarming regularity.
    Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said the 7.2 magnitude quake on Sunday killed 100 Van and 117 in the badly hit town of Ercis, 100 km (60 miles) further north. The death toll was expected to rise.
    Overseeing emergency operations in Ercis, Sahin said a total of 1,090 people were known to have been injured. Hundreds remain unaccounted for.
    More than 70 aftershocks rocked the area, further unsettling residents who ran into the streets when the initial quake struck. Television pictures showed rooms shaking and furniture toppling as people ran from one building.
    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.
    An earthquake struck Van province in November 1976, with 5,291 confirmed dead. Two people were killed and 79 injured in May when an earthquake shook Simav in northwest Turkey.
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