Turkey hunts for survivors as quake toll hits 217

Rescuers searched Monday for survivors of a powerful earthquake that killed at least 217 people in eastern Turkey, with more feared trapped in the rubble of dozens of collapsed buildings.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rushed to the Kurdish-populated Van province where the 7.2-magnitude quake struck on Monday, and warned the toll could rise as more victims were found in the wreckage of shattered buildings.
Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said that 100 people had died in the city of Van and 117 in Ercis district, with another 1,090 injured in the nation’s worst quake in years.
He said around 80 multi-storey buildings had collapsed in Ercis, where the damage seems to be worst, Anatolia news agency reported, and residents were still alive under the rubble of 40 collapsed buildings.
Television footage showed search and rescue teams recovering bodies from the rubble in Van and Ercis, working under floodlights powered by generators.
“People are panicked. The telecommunication services have collapsed. We cannot reach anybody,” Bekir Kaya, the mayor of Van, told NTV television.
In Van, authorities shut down Yuzunci Yil University and sent more than 4,000 students to their hometowns, Anatolia said. In Ercis, many students are believed to be buried under collapsed buildings after one student dormitory collapsed and several student houses crumbled.
Some 200 inmates fled the prison in Van province when the building was damaged in the quake, media reports said, adding that 50 of them returned to prison later after seeing their families.
“There are efforts to rescue people but the loss is big. I myself saw three to four dead,” one local man in Ercis told AFP.
The strong shake had sent people rushing into the streets, screaming and wailing in fear as buildings swayed above them.
Countless people spent the night outdoors, huddling around fires for warmth as the temperatures hovered around freezing.
Turkey mobilised some 1,275 search and rescue teams from 38 cities as well as 145 ambulances to speed to the aid of the victims.
A search and rescue team of around 650 people was working in Ercis, while another 300 people were in Van city center, Anatolia said.
The military said six battalions were also involved in search and rescue efforts.
Six helicopters, including four helicopter ambulances, as well as C-130 military cargo planes were dispatched to the area carrying tents, food and medicine.
Officials started to distribute water, biscuits and milk to Ercis survivors, who spent the night outside collapsed houses where many of their relatives remained trapped.
The Turkish Red Crescent sent some 7,500 tents, more than 22,000 blankets, almost 4,000 heaters and 1,000 body bags to the region, Anatolia said.
A mobile bakery and 21 mobile kitchens were also sent to Van, it added. Officials started to erect a tent city in Ercis stadium, the organization said on its web site.
US President Barack Obama said he had been following reports of the disaster “with great concern” and offered his condolences and help to the victims.
Turkey’s Kandilli seismological institute said the epicentre of the quake, which struck at 1041 GMT Sunday, was at Tabanli in Van province. The US Geological Survey initially measured the quake at 7.3 magnitude but later downgraded it to 7.2. It registered many aftershocks, the latest of which was of 6.0 magnitude.
The quake was also felt across the border in northwestern Iran, causing some panic in major cities, Iranian media reported. They did not report any deaths or serious damage.
In 1999, two strong quakes in northwest Turkey’s heavily populated and industrialised regions left some 20,000 dead. A powerful earthquake in the town of Caldiran in Van province killed 3,840 people in 1976.