Izmir, Turkey
A 70-year-old man was pulled from the rubble of a flattened building in western Turkey early on Sunday after being buried under the debris for 33 hours following a powerful earthquake that struck the country’s Aegean coast and Greek islands.
The death toll from Friday afternoon’s quake rose to 51. Turkish authorities have announced 49 deaths in the coastal city of Izmir, while two teenagers died on the Greek island of Samos.
The man, identified as Ahmet Citim, was rescued from the rubble of the residential “Riza Bey” building, one of the 20 residencies that collapsed during the earthquake.
The Turkish province of Izmir was shaken by an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 which struck the country’s Aegean coast and Greek islands on Friday. The quake caused a mini-tsunami on the Aegean island of Samos and a sea surge that turned streets into rushing rivers in one Turkish coastal town.
Officials said 20 buildings were destroyed in Izmir’s Bayrakli district which was in the process of urban transformation due to lack of earthquake resistance. Rescue workers are still trying to save people trapped under the debris.
Turkey is crossed by fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. In 1999, two powerful quakes killed 18,000 people in northwestern Turkey.—AFP
