2 girls saved after days in quake rubble
IZMIR, Turkey — Rescue teams Monday brought out two girls alive from the wreck of their collapsed apartment buildings in the Turkish coastal city of Izmir, three days after a strong earthquake centered in the Aegean Sea hit Turkey and Greece.
The overall death toll in Friday’s quake reached 94 in Turkey and Greece after teams found more bodies Monday amid toppled buildings in Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city.
More than a thousand people were injured in the quake, which was centered in the Aegean Sea, northeast of the Greek island of Samos. It killed two teenagers on Samos and injured at least 19 people on the island.
Rescue workers clapped in unison as 14-year-old Idil Sirin was removed from the rubble after being trapped for some 58 hours. Her 8-year-old sister, Ipek, did not survive, NTV television reported.
Seven hours later, rescuers extricated 3-year-old Elif Perincek, whose mother and two sisters had been rescued two days earlier, from another toppled building. The child spent 65 hours in the wreckage of her apartment and became the 106th person to be rescued alive, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
Many buildings were completely reduced to rubble or saw several floors pancake in on themselves in Turkey, which has a mix of older buildings and cheap or illegal construction that do not withstand earthquakes well.
Authorities detained nine people Monday for questioning about six building collapses, including contractors and officials who approved plans, the agency reported.