Up to 150 killed in Turkish quake

Today's powerful earthquake in Turkey killed up to 150 people and injured 390 others.

More than 100 children were trapped under the rubble of their school the quake in south-east Turkey.

Rescuers dug frantically at the wreckage of the school dormitory as hundreds of terrified parents screamed and prayed for news of their children. Several dozen youngsters were pulled from the debris alive.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at least 84 people were killed, and Housing Minister Zeki Ergezen said the death toll was expected to rise to 150 across the region.

Officials said 118 primary and middle school pupils remained trapped under the four storey school dormitory that collapsed in the village of Celtiksuyu, about 430 miles east of the capital Ankara.

Emergency workers said at least 69 children had been rescued so far.

The bodies of five children and one of their teachers had also been recovered from the rubble, said Feyzullah Karaaslan, the mayor of nearby Bingol town.

“My friends are waiting for help in there. They were calling for help as they were pulling me out,” said 12-year-old Veysel Dagdelen as he was carried away after being rescued.

The 6.4-magnitude quake struck at 03:27am (1.27 Irish time) and was centred just outside Bingol, the Kandilli seismology centre in Istanbul said.

At least 25 buildings and a bridge collapsed in the centre of Bingol, a town of 250,000 people. Damage could be seen everywhere and the streets were filled with terrified residents.

The earthquake damaged power and telephone lines in the area, and as more than 100 aftershocks hit the region, rescue workers were unable to reach many villages.

Soldiers, officials and local residents used cranes and jackhammers to try to save the surviving pupils under the school dormitory.

Voices of the trapped children could be heard coming from under the debris, while soldiers tried to stop hundreds of desperate relatives from approaching the collapsed building.

Youngsters already pulled from the wreckage were being treated for their injuries on mattresses laid out near the flattened building.

Naim Gencgul, a 15-year-old boy, was pulled out of the rubble with a broken arm.

“The whole building was on top of me. We all started screaming,” he said.

His elder brother, Sami Gencgul, had two sons in the school. His 14-year-old son Muslum is still missing.

“We never expected something like this would happen. We sent our kids here because there are no cars in our village,” said Gencgul. “Muslum is a good boy.”

As one soldier carried a child from the rubble to the cheers of onlookers, the boy could he heard shouting, “Father!”

Angry parents questioned how well the school had been constructed.

“The stable I built did not collapse – but the school did,” one father said.

Proper inspections had not been carried out and shoddy materials had been used, said Prime Minister Erdogan as he visited the quake area.

“Investigations will be launched and the guilty will be prosecuted,” he vowed.

Thousands of poorly-built buildings collapsed when two massive earthquakes struck western Turkey in 1999, killing 18,000 people.

Bingol resident Nazim Karabulut said the school was a “terrible construction”.

“Nobody ever learned their lessons,” he said.

Doctors at Bingol’s state hospital appealed for help to deal with the crisis. The hospital was seriously damaged in the quake and scores of injured were being treated outside in the open air.

“We need every kind of help,” said chief doctor Ilhan Cokabay. “Medical supplies, people, whatever.”

The mayor said the city also needed more large tents. The Red Crescent sent 3,100 tents, 13,000 blankets, as well as mobile kitchens, generators, ambulances, and four tons of food supplies.

Soldiers, emergency workers and mountaineers with rescue experience were also heading for the area.

The tremor was felt in the nearby provinces of Erzincan, Tunceli, Bingol, Erzurum, Kayseri and Sivas. The quake lasted 17 seconds, said Gulay Barbarasoglu at the Istanbul observatory.

Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which lies on the active North Anatolian fault. A 1971 quake in Bingol killed 900 people.