Rescue operations take place at site after earthquake hits Aegean Sea
Istanbul:
Search and rescue efforts focused on two buildings in the western Turkish city of Izmir, as the death toll from Friday’s Aegean earthquake stood at 115, reported disaster authorities announced on Wednesday.
Two of the earthquake victims were teenagers on the Greek island of Samos, authorities said.
On Tuesday, 90 hours after the earthquake, rescuers in Izmir pulled a young girl alive from the rubble and search operations have now focused on two buildings.
It was the deadliest earthquake to hit Turkey in almost a decade.
The earthquake injured 1,035 people in Izmir, 137 of whom are still being treated, the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said.
More than 4,600 tents and 17,000 beds are being used for temporary shelters in Turkey, the agency said.
Turkey is crossed by fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. More than 500 people were killed in an earthquake in 2011 in the eastern city of Van, while another in January this year killed 41 people in the eastern province of Elazig.
In 1999, two powerful earthquakes killed 18,000 people in northwestern Turkey. AFAD said Friday’s earthquake had a magnitude of 6.6, with 1,670 aftershocks.
