Turkey struggles to shelter quake victims

TURKEY struggled to provide shelter yesterday to tens of thousands left homeless by an earthquake that killed nearly 500, and rescue teams began taking painful decisions to call off searches for those buried alive.

Three days after the 7.2-magnitude quake shook eastern Turkey, demolishing 3,000 buildings, rescue workers pulled a 27-year-old woman and an 18-year-old student alive from collapsed buildings in Ercis, the town hit hardest. At another crumpled building in the town, rescue workers who had worked non-stop for more than 48 hours switched off their generators and lights, convinced no one was left alive. Seconds later, they received word someone trapped below had made mobile phone contact.

“There are three people trapped under there. When we lifted a concrete slab, the phone must have been able to get reception,” said one rescue worker, as the lights were turned back on and his team returned to their job.