Up to 1,000 feared dead as quake hits Turkey

AT least 85 people have been killed with hundreds more feared dead after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey.

Tens of thousands of residents fled into the streets, while desperate survivors dug into the rubble with their bare hands, trying to rescue the trapped and the injured as the scale of the quake became clear.

Turkey’s state-run television station TRT said a group of inmates escaped from a prison after the earthquake struck. It was not immediately known how many had fled.

TRT had earlier reported that 59 people were killed and 150 injured in the eastern town of Ercis. Around 25 others were killed in Van, while a child died in the nearby province of Bitlis.

Turkish scientists estimated that up to 1,000 people could already be dead, basing the calculation on low local housing standards and the size of the quake.

The hardest-hit location was Ercis, a city of 75,000 close to the Iranian border, which lies on the Ercis Fault in one of Turkey’s most earthquake-prone zones. Van, about 80km to the south, also sustained substantial damage.

Up to 80 buildings collapsed in Ercis, including a dormitory, and 10 buildings collapsed in Van, the Turkish Red Crescent said. Some motorways also caved in, CNN-Turk television reported.

Hundreds of injured people were treated at the state hospital in Ercis, NTV television said. Survivors in Ercis complained of a lack of heavy machinery to remove chunks of cement floors that pancaked onto each other.

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

US scientists recorded eight aftershocks within three hours of the quake, including two with a magnitude of 5.6. Serious damage and casualties were also reported in the district of Celebibag, near Ercis.

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

The Kandilli observatory, Turkey’s main seismography centre, 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 news conference.

The earthquake also shook buildings in neighbouring Armenia and Iran.

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

The Government has offered humanitarian aid and personnel from the Rapid Response Corps to Turkey following the quake.

Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore said it was imperative that the humanitarian response was rapid and effective to keep the death toll to a minimum.

He has placed members of the Irish Aid Rapid Response Corps on standby and offered supplies from Ireland’s emergency stockpiles in Brindisi, Italy and Dubai.