AFAD, the government disaster agency, said 100 people had been rescued.
Bayrakl:
Rescuers ran against the clock to save people trapped under rubble in Turkey and Greece on Saturday as distraught mourners buried the first victims of a powerful earthquake that claimed the lives of 30 people.
The 7.0-magnitude quake killed 28 people and injured nearly 900 in Turkey after hitting Friday afternoon near the west coast town of Seferihisar in Izmir province.
Also killing two teenagers on their way home from school in Greece, it caused a mini-tsunami on the Aegean island of Samos and a sea wave that turned the streets into tumultuous rivers in a Turkish coastal town.
Turkish authorities have recorded nearly 600 aftershocks, including dozens of magnitudes greater than 4.0, making it difficult to find those still breathing under mountains of concrete debris.
In Bayrakli, near the hardest-hit Turkish resort town of Izmir, families and friends watched in agony, exhaustion and hope as workers painstakingly lifted slabs of buildings flattened.
Jubilation, relief and tears of joy greeted every survivor found. Cries of pain accompanied black bags containing bodies removed from the disaster area.
“Let me see who it is!” cried a man.
In small green spaces near damaged buildings, tents are pitched for frightened families to spend the night.
“It was so cold last night,” said Nilgun Yikariz, 59, who was sleeping on the grass in a small tent outside his destroyed apartment.
Nearby, Azize Akkoyun recognized parts of her family’s apartment in the ruins while awaiting news of her missing relatives.
“These curtains belonged to my daughter’s in-laws,” Akkoyun told AFP. “God willing, they will come out alive.”
‘Risk of aftershocks’
Hope has grown that more survivors could be found following reports in Turkish media that a mother and her three children were rescued some 23 hours after the disaster.
A 53-year-old, 62-year-old man was also taken out alive hours after the quake, media reported.
AFAD, the government disaster agency, said 100 people had been rescued.
But the wait was agonizing and the excruciatingly slow recovery work, punctuated by long silences in which rescuers – often lying on their knees, their heads sunk in open cracks – listened for signs of life.
As his family moved into their white tent, Cemalettin Enginyurt, 51, described feeling “helpless”.
The retired soldier said his family’s home suffered from “serious” cracks and he feared people would be unable to tell if their home was fit to re-enter.
“As it stands now and with the risk of aftershocks, we have decided the solution is to stay outside,” he said.
The latest earthquake will rekindle fears over when Istanbul could be hit by a major earthquake after the devastating 7.4 magnitude earthquake in 1999 in Izmit, western Turkey.
Some 17,000 people died then, including 1,000 in Istanbul.
It is the second powerful earthquake to hit Turkey this year, after an earthquake in the eastern city of Elazig killed more than 30 people in January.
‘Lost souls’
The quake was felt as far away as Athens and Istanbul.
On the Greek island of Samos, home to 45,000 people and a large migrant camp, the civil protection agency called the situation “extremely difficult”.
“Churches, ports and houses will be rebuilt. With the help of God and men,” said priest Emmanouil, whose church in the island village of Pythagorio was damaged. “But lost souls do not return.”
“The whole of Greece is in mourning,” added visiting Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who broke a long-standing cold in relations with Turkey by calling on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to express his support.
Erdogan was due to travel to Izmir later on Saturday, encouraging families and signaling that Turkish authorities had not given up hope.
But a sense of peril loomed over the coastal province, with large cracks and broken plaster buildings that looked like they could fall from another bad jolt.
In downtown Bayrakli, families cried and prayed at the first funeral for earthquake victims.
“I can’t cry anymore. Listen, I am not crying,” one woman cried. “Mother, when will I see you again?”
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
