7.2 Quake Rocks Eastern Turkey

[jimmy olsen]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45005013/ns/world_news-europe/

updated 21 minutes ago

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ANKARA, Turkey — A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey on Sunday, killing at least 60 people as it collapsed buildings into piles of twisted steel and chunks of concrete. Desperate survivors dug into the rubble with their bare hands, trying to rescue the trapped and injured.

State-run TRT television reported that 45 people were killed and 150 injured in the eastern town of Ercis, and 15 others died in the provincial center of Van. Turkish scientists estimated that up to 1,000 people could already be dead, due to low housing standards in the area and the size of the quake.

Ercis, a city of 75,000 in the mountainous province of Van close to the Iranian border, was the hardest hit. It lies on the Ercis Fault in one of Turkey's most earthquake-prone zones. Van, 55 miles (90 kilometers) to the south, also suffered substantial damage.

As many as 80 buildings collapsed in Ercis, including a dormitory, and 10 buildings collapsed in Van, the Turkish Red Crescent said. Some highways also caved in, CNN-Turk television reported.

"There are so many dead. Several buildings have collapsed. There is too much destruction," Ercis mayor Zulfikar Arapoglu told NTV television. "We need urgent aid. We need medics."

Rescuers in Van scrambled to find survivors in a flattened eight-story building that had shops on the ground floor, television footage showed. Residents sobbed outside the ruins, hoping that missing relatives would be rescued.

"My wife and child are inside! My 4-month-old baby is inside!" CNN-Turk television showed one young man crying.
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Witnesses said eight people were rescued from the rubble, but frequent aftershocks were hampering search efforts, CNN-Turk reported.

Serious damage and casualties were also reported in the district of Celebibag, near Ercis.

"There are many people under the rubble," Veysel Keser, mayor of Celebibag, told NTV. "People are in agony, we can hear their screams for help. We need urgent help."

He said many buildings had collapsed, including student dormitories, hotels and gas stations.

The quake's epicenter was in the village of Tabanli, 10 miles (17 kilometers) from Van. It struck at 10:41 a.m. local time, at a depth of 12.4 miles (20 kilometers), according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Turkey lies in one of the world's most active seismic zones and is crossed by numerous fault lines. Lake Van, where Sunday's earthquake hit, is in the country's most earthquake-prone region.

U.S. scientists recorded eight aftershocks within three hours of the quake, including two with a magnitude of 5.6.

Atalay said authorities had no information yet on remote villages but the governor was touring the region by helicopter to assess the damage.

The Kandilli observatory, Turkey's main seismography center, said the quake was capable of killing many people.

"We are estimating a death toll between 500 and 1,000," Mustafa Erdik, head of the Kandilli observatory, told a televised news conference.

In Van, terrified residents spilled into the streets in panic as rescue workers and residents using their bare hands and shovels struggled to find people believed to be trapped under collapsed buildings, television footage showed. At least 50 people were treated in the courtyard of the state hospital, the state-run Anatolia news agency said.

There was no immediate information about a recently restored 10th century Armenian church, Akdamar Church, which is perched on a rocky island in the nearby Lake Van.
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Houses also collapsed in the province of Bitlis, where an 8-year-old girl was killed, authorities said. The quake also toppled the minarets of two mosques in the nearby province of Mus.

NTV said Van's airport was damaged and planes were being diverted to neighboring cities.

The earthquake also shook buildings in neighboring Armenia. In the Armenian capital of Yerevan, 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Ercis, people rushed into the streets fearing buildings would collapse but no damage or injuries were immediately reported.

Armenia was the site of a devastating earthquake in 1988 that killed 25,000 people.

Sunday's quake also caused panic among residents in several Iranian towns close to the Turkish border, and cut phone links and caused cracks in buildings in the city of Chaldoran, Iranian state TV reported.

An official said the quake was also felt in Salmas, Maku, Khoi and several other towns in northeastern Iran but no damage was immediately reported.

[Liep]

End of the world?

[Siege]

Awesome!

[Queequeg]

Awesome!

Fucking pig.

[jimmy olsen]

Awesome!

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=243155

Turkish earthquake death toll rises to 459
By REUTERS
10/25/2011 21:24

Hope of finding people alive under rubble fading; residents express anger at gov't response: "The prime minister runs for help when it's Palestine."
Talkbacks (2)


ERCIS, Turkey - Rescuers pulled a two-week-old baby girl alive from a collapsed apartment block on Tuesday as they battled to find survivors of an earthquake in eastern Turkey that killed more than 400 people and made tens of thousands homeless.

The baby's mother and a grandmother were also brought out alive on stretchers to jubilant cries from onlookers who followed the dramatic rescue under cold, pouring rain.

"It's a miracle!" said Senol Yigit, the uncle of the baby, Azra, whose name means "purity" or "untouched" in Arabic. "I'm so happy. What can I say? We have been waiting for two days. We had lost hope when we first saw the building," he said sobbing.

However, hope of finding more people alive under the rubble faded with every passing hour as more bodies were found.

The death toll from Sunday's 7.2-magnitude quake rose to 459, with 1,352 injured, the Disaster and Emergency Administration said. The final count was likely to rise further as many people were still missing and 2,262 buildings had collapsed.

Thousands prepared to spend a third night in freezing temperatures in crowded tents or huddled around fires across a quake-prone region in Van province, near the Iranian border.

With the government facing criticism over shortages of tents and other relief items, Turkey requested prefabricated housing and tents from more than 30 countries, including Israel, a Foreign Ministry official told Reuters.

Many victims accused the central government of poor organisation and of being slow in delivering aid to a region inhabited mostly by minority Kurds and home to a separatist insurgency against the Turkish state. Fighting broke out among desperate victims to grab tents from overwhelmed aid workers.

Spelling more trouble for authorities, gunshots were heard as prisoners set fire to a jail and fought with guards in Van, two days after a jailbreak in which 200 were reported to have escaped in the chaos after the quake.

The ruling AK Party has apologised for distribution problems. Urgency to offer shelters was heightened by worsening weather, with the first winter snow less than a month away.

Erdogan face Kurdish dissatisfaction

Officials said 12,000 more tents would reach Van on Tuesday for the neediest, particularly in villages.

"Life has become hell. We are outside, the weather is cold. There are no tents," said Emin Kayram, 53, sitting by a campfire in Ercis after spending the night with his family of eight in a van parked nearby. His nephew was trapped in the debris of a building behind him, where rescue workers dug through the night.

"He is 18, a student. He is still stuck in there. This is the third day but you can't lose hope. We have to wait here."

How fast Ankara manages to deliver aid and long-term relief to the survivors might have political consequences in a region plagued by poverty and the Kurdish insurgency, analysts said.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who won a third consecutive term with a strong majority in a June election, has promised to push reforms in parliament and rewrite the constitution to address long-time Kurdish grievances in an effort to end violence. Erdogan travelled to the region on Sunday, and President Abdullah Gul has also announced plans to visit.

"If we want to win the hearts of our brothers of Kurdish origin, we should act now. We should beat the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) with this approach, which is more effective than arms," leading analyst Mehmet Ali Birand wrote.

Fighting broke out among a crowd of around 200-300 people after a truck arrived in Van city and started handing out tents next to a cemetery. Women were hit and kicked as people tried to force their way through to get access to the tents, while police tried in vain to establish order.

"There is absolutely no coordination, you have to step on people to get a tent," said jobless Suleyman Akbulut, 18.
"The prime minister runs for help when it's Palestine or Somalia, sends ships to Palestine, almost goes to war with Israel for the sake of Palestinians, but he doesn't move a muscle when it comes to his own people," said Emrullah, a young man of about 18.

[Siege]

Awesome!

Fucking pig.

[Ideologue]

Somehow I don't feel Siege ever won a lot of hearts or minds in his time abroad representing my country.

[Ed Anger]

Somehow I don't feel Siege ever won a lot of hearts or minds in his time abroad representing my country.

He was eating the hearts of our enemies though.

[Ideologue]

Hey, I never said he didn't have his good qualities.

[Ed Anger]

He's okay for being a meat shield.