ANKARA, Turkey—Rescue teams on Monday sifted through rubble of flattened multistory buildings to try to reach dozens of people believed trapped beneath after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey. The Interior Minister said the death toll in the powerful quake has increased to 217.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed early Monday to deliver needed rescue services and relief supplies and called out the army to aid in the effort.
“We won’t leave any citizen in the cold,” Erdogan said in front of television cameras in the provincial capital Van
Hundreds of rescue teams worked throughout the night searching for survivors among dozens of pancaked buildings, as aid groups scrambled to set up tents, field hospitals and kitchens to assist thousands left homeless.
Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said about 80 multistory buildings collapsed in the city of Ercis alone when the earthquake struck on Sunday. He said some 40 buildings still had people trapped inside, giving rise to fears that the death toll could increase substantially. The minister did not give any estimates.
“Rescue work is ongoing, especially at buildings where [rescuers] have determined survivors,” Sahin said.
The hardest-hit area was Ercis, an eastern city of 75,000 close to the Iranian border and on one of Turkey’s most earthquake-prone zones. The bustling city of Van, about 90 kilometers south of Ercis, also sustained substantial damage. Highways in the area caved in.
Sahin said 117 were killed in Ercis, another 100 died in Van. In both areas, more than a thousand could be injured.
US scientists recorded over 100 aftershocks in eastern Turkey within 10 hours of the quake, including one with a magnitude of 6.0. The epicenter was under the town of Tabanli, near the border with Iran.
Shaking was felt in Armenia, where panicked residents of Yerevan fled their homes. Aid offers began to pour in from abroad, including Germany, Israel and Russia, as well as Nato, of which Turkey is a member.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul told Israeli President Shimon Peres that Turkey would manage search-and-rescue operations itself “at this stage,” Peres’s office said.
In the city of Van, 10 buildings collapsed, including one seven-story apartment block.
Across the region, residents were laboring with shovels, iron rods and their bare hands to dig out survivors. Power outages complicated rescue efforts overnight.
The government’s crisis team said 500 aid workers and doctors were being flown to the area.
The Turkish Red Crescent began distributing tents, blankets and food in the region. Health Minister Recep Akdag said an air ambulance and several helicopters would be sent to the quake-hit area, according to the Anatolia news agency.
Authorities advised people to stay away from damaged homes, warning they could collapse in the aftershocks. Residents spent the night outdoors and lit campfires, while the Red Crescent began setting up tents in a stadium. Others sought shelter with relatives in nearby villages.
Rescue efforts went deep into the night under generator-powered floodlights. Workers tied steel rods around large concrete slabs in Van, then lifted them with heavy machinery.
Around 1,275 rescue teams from 38 provinces were being sent to the region, officials said, and troops were also assisting search-and-rescue efforts.
