70-year-old man pulled out alive 34 hours after quake in Turkey
izmir (turkey) — Rescue workers extricated a 70-year-old man from a collapsed building in western Turkey on Sunday, some 34 hours after a strong earthquake in the Aegean Sea struck Turkey and Greece, killing at least 69 people and injuring more than 900.
It was the latest series of remarkable rescues after the Friday earthquake, which was centered in the Aegean northeast of the Greek island of Samos. Search-and-rescue teams were working in nine toppled or damaged buildings in Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city, but appeared to be finding more bodies on Sunday than survivors.
Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) raised the death toll on Sunday in Izmir to 64.
There was some debate over the magnitude of the earthquake. The US Geological Survey rated it 7.0, while the Istanbul’s Kandilli Institute put it at 6.9 and AFAD said it measured 6.6.
Ahmet Citim, 70, was pulled out of the rubble in the middle of the night and was hospitalised. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted that Citim said: “I never lost hope.” The minister visited the survivor and said he was doing well.
The quake triggered a small tsunami that hit Samos and the Seferihisar district of Izmir, drowning one elderly woman. The tremors were felt across western Turkey, including in Istanbul as well as in the Greek capital of Athens. Hundreds of aftershocks followed. Turkey’s disaster agency said 940 people were injured in Turkey alone, with more than 218 still receiving treatment.
Turkish Vice-President Fuat Oktay said 26 badly damaged buildings would be demolished in Izmir.
“It’s not the earthquake that kills but buildings,” he added, repeating a common slogan.
Two destroyed apartment buildings in Izmir where much of the rescues are taking place had received reports of “decay” in 2012 and 2018, according to the municipal agency in charge of such certificates. Turkish media, including
the Hurriyet newspaper, said one of the buildings, which was built in 1993, was at risk of earthquake damage because of its low quality concrete and the lack of reinforcements. However, the building continued to be occupied.
A 73-year-old survivor from one of those buildings said she was on her third floor balcony when the quake struck and believes there were at least 50 people in the building, which also had a cafe on the bottom floor.
“In the first tremor nothing happened. During the second tremor, the seventh floor, sixth and fourth floors fell on top of another like a sandwich,” Suzan Dere said. “The building collapsed in a cloud of dust onto the street with a very loud noise. It all happened within one minute.” — AP