|
An earthquake of magnitude 7.2 struck the eastern city of Van in Turkey killing around 138 people and injuring 350 on Sunday afternoon. The epicenter of the quake is reportedly located in the village of Tabanli in Van Province bordering Iran. Rescue workers in eastern Turkey are racing to find survivors trapped in the wreckage of buildings and mud-brick homes after a 7.2-magnitude quake that killed 432 people so far. The death toll, however, is expected to increase further as people continue the search for survivors in the earthquake devastated area. As emergency workers battled to rescue the trapped people inside collapsed buildings, they also experienced around 100 aftershocks, some of which measured up to 6.0 magnitude.
As time has passed since the earthquake hit Van on Sunday, more sad and sometimes miraculous stories have been revealed. One is that of Çelik İlhan, who was able to talk to his brother, who was trapped underneath rubble, on a cell phone, until his brother died. Adem İlhan said: “I called my brother Çelik İlhan as soon as I heard about the earthquake. I was happy when he picked up the phone, but he said that he was trapped under the debris. He said that he was having trouble breathing since he was cramped for space. I immediately made a call to rescue teams with another phone while I was still talking to Çelik. I tried to give him moral support, but after a while his voice became a weak whisper, until it was completely gone.”
Many people trapped under the rubble were able to notify police of their whereabouts via SMS messages sent from their cell phones. A team of 20 people examined each of the 3,000 short messages sent to 155, the police hotline, and 112, the hotline for emergency service, carefully. Nineteen of the messages were found to require emergency action, and seven of those people were found alive thanks to their messages.
For more information visit Zamans Today, Latest News Turkey
|
Profile 
TURKEY
