Turkey earthquake: 70-year-old rescued after 34 hours in the rubble

Rescue personnel pulled a 70-year-old man from a collapsed building in western Turkey on Sunday, some 34 hours after a solid earthquake in the Aegean Sea hit Turkey and Greece, killing at least 60 persons and injuring a lot more than 900.

It was the most recent series of exceptional rescues following the Friday afternoon earthquake, which centred in the Aegean northeast of the Greek island of Samos. Search-and-rescue teams employed in nine toppled or damaged buildings in Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city, appeared to be finding more bodies on Sunday than survivors.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the death toll in Izmir to 58. Two teenagers were killed on Friday on Samos and at least 19 others were injured.

There is some debate over the magnitude of the earthquake. THE UNITED STATES Geological Survey rated it 7.0, as the Istanbul’s Kandilli Institute put it at 6.9 and Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) said it measured 6.6.

Ahmet Citim, 70, was pulled from the rubble in the center of the night and was taken to a healthcare facility. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted that Mr Citim said: “I never lost hope.”

The minister visited the survivor and said he was doing well.

The quake triggered a little tsunami that hit Samos and the Seferihisar district of Izmir, drowning one elderly woman. The tremors were felt across western Turkey, including in Istanbul aswell as in the Greek capital of Athens. Hundreds of aftershocks followed. Turkey’s disaster agency said 930 persons were injured in Turkey alone.

Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said 26 badly damaged buildings will be demolished in Izmir.

“It’s not the earthquake that kills but buildings,” he added, repeating a common slogan.

Ahmet Citim, 70, was pulled from the rubble in the middle of the night time and was taken up to a healthcare facility. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted that Mr Citim said: “I never lost hope.”

The minister visited the survivor and said he was doing well.

The quake triggered a small tsunami that hit Samos and the Seferihisar district of Izmir, drowning one elderly woman. The tremors were felt across western Turkey, including in Istanbul aswell as in the Greek capital of Athens. Hundreds of aftershocks followed. Turkey’s disaster agency said 930 people were injured in Turkey alone.

Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said 26 badly damaged buildings will be demolished in Izmir.

“It’s not the earthquake that kills but buildings,” he added, repeating a common slogan.

Turkey has a mixture of older buildings and cheap or against the law construction, which can bring about serious damage and deaths when earthquakes hit. Regulations have been tightened in light of earthquakes to strengthen or demolish buildings and urban renewal is underway in Turkish cities nonetheless it isn't happening fast enough.

Two destroyed apartment buildings in Izmir where a lot of the rescues are occurring had received reports of “decay” in 2012 and 2018, according to the municipal agency in charge of such certificates. Turkish media like the Hurriyet newspaper said one of the buildings, which was built-in 1993, was vulnerable to earthquake damage as a result of its low-quality concrete and having less reinforcements. However, the building continued to be occupied.

Turkey’s justice minister said prosecutors have begun investigating several collapsed buildings and promised legal repercussions if authorities identified neglect.

AFAD said practically 6,400 personnel have been activated for rescue work and hundreds of others for food distribution, emergency help and building damage control.

Turkey is crisscrossed by fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. In 1999, two powerful quakes killed some 18,000 persons in north-west Turkey. Earthquakes are frequent in Greece aswell.

In a rare show of unity amid months of tense relations over energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean, Greek and Turkish government officials issued mutual messages of solidarity over the quake toll.

Pope Francis on Sunday asked the faithful to pray for the persons of the Aegean Sea.

The quake occurred as Turkey was already struggling with an monetary downturn and the coronavirus pandemic. Up to now, Turkey has more than 10,000 confirmed virus deaths however, many experts have accused the federal government of concealing the real impact of the virus with just how it counts new cases.