World News

Turkey continues rescue work after earthquake death toll hits 81

Rescue teams have rescued two girls alive from the wreckage of their collapsed apartment buildings in the Turkish coastal area of Izmir, three days after a powerful earthquake hit Turkey and Greece.

The overall death toll reached 81 on Monday after teams found more bodies overnight amid the rubble in Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city.

More than 1,000 people were injured in the quake, which was centred in the Aegean Sea, northeast of the Greek island of Samos. It killed two teenagers on Samos and injured at least 19 other people on the island.

Turkish authorities said 79 people were killed, all in Izmir. More than 3,500 tents and 13,000 beds were supplied to provide temporary shelter, according to Turkey’s disaster and emergency authority (AFAD).

Turkey earthquake

More than 740 victims have so far been discharged from hospitals, it added.
Early Monday, nearly 65 hours after the quake, three-year-old Elif Perincek was pulled from the debris in the Bayrakli district of western Izmir province.

Elif was the 106th person to be rescued from the rubble and was taken to hospital, Anadolu news agency reported.

Rescue workers clapped and cheered as a 14-year-old girl was also extricated from a collapsed building, Turkey’s IHA private agency reported.

Idil Sirin was pulled out of the remains of Emrah Apartment, where she was under the rubble for 58 hours with her sister Ipek Sirin, 8, who did not survive, NTV television reported.

Sirin was rushed off to the hospital immediately after her rescue. In a Twitter post, Mehmet Gulluoglu, the head of AFAD, expressed his gratitude for the rescue of Elif Perincek.

Turkey has a mix of older buildings and cheap or illegal construction, which can lead to serious damage resulting in deaths when earthquakes hit. Regulations have been tightened to strengthen or demolish buildings and urban renewal is underway in Turkish cities, but it is not happening fast enough.

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Source: aljazeera