Girl rescued 65 hours after quake

ISTANBUL: A 3yearold girl was rescued from a collapsed building in the western Turkish city of Izmir yesterday, nearly three days after an earthquake measuring 6.9 struck the Aegean Sea region northeast of Samos, killing 81 people.

Rescue efforts were continuing in eight buildings in Izmir where 79 people were killed, making Friday’s earthquake the deadliest in Turkey for nearly a decade. Two teenagers died on the Greek island of Samos, authorities said.

Television footage showed the girl, Elif, being pulled from the rubble and carried by rescue workers on a stretcher to an ambulance, 65 hours after the earthquake struck.

Elif’s two sisters, brother and mother were rescued on Sunday, but one of the children subsequently died.

More than 3500 tents and 13,000 beds had been supplied to provide temporary shelter, according to Turkey’s emergency management authority, which said 962 people were injured in the quake.