24 Oct 2011

Hundreds dead after Turkey quake

Rescue workers explain to Channel 4 News that food and shelter are the priorities, after an earthquake in south east Turkey which has left hundreds of people dead and thousands homeless.

Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay, who is coordinating the rescue operation, said that around 1,300 people were known to be injured and that hundreds of people were still missing, feared dead, after the 7.2 magnitude quake on Sunday.

At the latest count, at least 279 people died in the quake although the toll continues to rise as more bodies are found as well as survivors.

Soldiers have joined the rescue effort, frantically searching through mounds of smashed concrete in Van and Ercis, to try and rescue survivors from destroyed buildings.

In Van, a city of one million people that is situated on a lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains, cranes shifted rubble from a collapsed six-storey apartment block to try and rescue 70 people trapped inside.

They are still finding people alive under the rubble and there is an expectation that we will find many more. Kaan Saner, Turkish Red Crescent

With 55 buildings flattened, the level of destruction is Ercis, a town of 100,000 people in Turkey’s Kurdish heartland, was greater than in Van. At one crumbling four-storey building, a team of firemen tried to reach four children, believed to be trapped in one of the apartment blocks.

It is the most powerful earthquake to hit Turkey in over a decade – as powerful as the quake which hit Haiti in January last year. Over 200 aftershocks affected the region in the hours following the quake, which struck for less than 30 seconds at around 10.40am UK time on Sunday.

Priority is ‘shelter and food’

The Turkish government has sent a team of 1,275 search and rescue personnel, 174 vehicles, 290 health officials, 43 ambulances, and six air ambulances.

The Turkish Red Crescent (TRC), part of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent, is one of the largest disaster response organisations in Europe and is coordinating the relief efforts in the region.

Its main priority is food and shelter, Kaan Saner, TRC head of international development told Channel 4 News, as so many people have been made homeless. Night-time temperatures can fall to minus 2 degrees Celsius, and the organisation hopes that most of them will have shelter by tonight.

Two tent “cities” have been set up in Ercis to provide shelter to those who have been made homeless and the TRC is also delivering tents to families who want to camp near their former homes.

In total, 12,000 tents have been delivered, along with 25,000 blankets, 3,000 heaters and two mobile catering units.

“They are still finding people alive under the rubble and there is an expectation that we will find many more,” said Mr Saner.

The number of people made homeless as a result of the quake has not yet been confirmed.

Turkish rescue efforts have improved

Turkey is very vulnerable to earthquakes and previous incidents have had devastating effects. In 1999, the Izmit earthquake killed 17,000 people, injured 50,000 and left 500,000 people homeless.

But Mr Saner told Channel 4 News the country has learnt its lesson from the past disasters.

“Compared to previous earthquakes, this is a remarkable development in Turkey’s disaster management system,” he said.

“We are feeling much more prepared to deal with every aspect of this situation.”

The Turkish leadership has not called for international aid.

History of tectonic activity

Turkey is especially vulnerable to earthquakes because it sits across major geographical fault lines. The recent earthquake was caused by the collision of the Arabian and Eurasian plates, according to the US Geographical Society.

In 1999, a devastating earthquake hit Izmit, 90km south east of Istanbul, killing 17,000 people and injuring 50,000. In addition, around 500,000 people were left homeless.

Around 1,340 people were killed and 530 injured when an earthquake hit the town of Erurum in 1983.

In 1976, an earthquake struck eastern Turkey, destroying several villages near the Turkey and Iran border and killing several thousand people. An estimated 33,000 people were also killed as a result of an earthquake in Erzincan in 1939.