IZMIR: A 70-year-old man today (Sunday) was pulled from the rubble of a flattened building in western Turkey after being buried under the debris for 33 hours following the earthquake that struck Aegean coast and Greek Islands.
According to details, the man, identified as Ahmet Citim, was rescued from the rubble of the residential building, one of the 20 residencies that collapsed during the earthquake. The death toll from the earthquake rose to 51 as rescue officials continue their search operations.
Officials have informed that nearly 20 buildings were destroyed in Izmir’s Bayrakli district which was in the process of urban transformation. Rescue workers are still trying to save people trapped under the debris.
The Turkish province of Izmir was shaken by an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 and 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.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan has informed that 885 people had been injured, 15 of them critically. Turkey is crossed by fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. In 1999, two powerful quakes killed 18,000 people in northwestern Turkey.
