October 23, 2011
Earthquake in Turkey ~ Magnitude 7.2 Kills As Many as 1,000 People
An earthquake in Turkey’s eastern province of Van may have killed as many as 1,000 people, collapsing apartment buildings and damaging 4,000 homes, government officials said.
Turkey’s state-run TRT television said that 28 people have so far been confirmed dead. Officials from the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute said between 500 and 1,000 people may have died.
The magnitude 7.2-earthquake struck in the province of Van by the Iranian border at 1:41 p.m. local time and was followed by more than 40 aftershocks, the observatory at Bogazici University in Istanbul said on its website. It was the province’s biggest tremor since 1976 and was 5 kilometers (3 miles) below the surface, it said.
“The area where the earthquake occurred is very shallow,” Mustafa Erdik, head of the Kandilli observatory, said in televised comments. “Normally quakes happen 30 to 40 kilometers deep, this is less than 10 kilometers, therefore there will be more damage.”Continues ...read more ..
CNN Turk television showed images of men in Van scrambling on the rubble of a collapsed dormitory building, digging away wreckage with shovels to reach people they believe were trapped underneath.
Erdogan Response
More than 1,000 rescue workers are heading to Van, about 1,300 miles from Istanbul, from about 30 provinces said Mustafa Aydogdu, a spokesman for the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency.
The Turkish Red Crescent is sending 600 tents, 2,500 blankets and 100 space heaters to the emergency zone, where 25 apartment buildings and one dormitory are known to have collapsed, Erdem Coplen, a spokesman in Ankara, said in a telephone interview.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is traveling to Van, NTV reported. Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said government agencies are coordinating a response to the earthquake and will meet in the province, which is to the east of Turkey’s largest lake and south of Mount Ararat.
It was the biggest tremor since a quake in 1999 that struck 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) east of Istanbul, killing more than 17,000 people and causing damage estimated at the time of $6.5 billion.
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