Earthquake Shakes Eastern Turkey At Least 51 Killed
An earthquake of 6.0-magnitude shakes eastern part of Turkey last Monday had at least killed 51 villagers. Officials said that quake aftershocks continued for hours while rescuers searched for trapped survivors.
The 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck at 4:32 am local time in a lightly-populated area of high steppe in Eastern Anatolia. Villagers were sleeping in their mud-brick houses when the earthquake occurs.
“There was a lot of fear and panic among the people. It lasted about a minute,” Nursel Sengezer, a Dogan News Agency correspondent in Elazig province, told broadcaster CNN Turk.
“We felt it very strongly and everyone tried to get out onto the street.”
After the major shake on Monday, families huddled in the open around fires lit to keep them warm, as the ground shook with more than 40 aftershocks, the largest of which had a magnitude of 5.5.
The quake toppled the minarets of three mosques in stricken villages in the Basyurt region of Elazig, according to provincial governor Muammer Erol.
Paramilitary and police directed operations on the outskirts of affected villages, where crowds had gathered, and a Red Crescent team had reached the area and set up a crisis centre.
Health Minister Recep Akdag, who had travelled to Elazig along with Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek, put the death toll at 51, revising the figure from 57 given earlier by officials.
Turkey is criss-crossed with faultlines and frequently suffers earthquakes. A large earthquake measuring 7.4 killed about 18,000 people in August 1999.
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