People walk in the debris of houses destroyed in an
earthquake, in Okcular village in the eastern province of
Elazig, Turkey. (AP Photo)
Hundreds of earthquake survivors huddled in aid tents and
around bonfires today in eastern Turkey, seeking relief
from the winter cold after a strong temblor knocked down stone
and mud-brick houses in five villages, killing 51 people.
The damage appeared worst in the Kurdish village of Okcular,
which was almost razed. At least 15 of the village's 900
residents were killed, the Elazig governor's office said, and
the air was thick with dust from crumpled homes and barns.
The pre-dawn earthquake caught many residents as they slept,
shaking the area's poorly made buildings into piles of
rubble. Panicked survivors fled into the narrow streets of
this village perched on a hill in front of snow-covered
mountains, with some people climbing out of windows to
escape.
"I tried to get out of the door but it wouldn't open. I came
out of the window and started helping my neighbors," Ali Riza
Ferhat of Okcular told NTV television. "We removed six
bodies."
The Kandilli seismology centre said the 6.0-magnitude quake
hit at 4:32am (local time) near the village of Basyurt in a
remote, sparsely populated area of Elazig province. The
region is 550km east of Ankara, the capital.
The US Geological Survey listed the quake at 5.9 magnitude.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kandilli
Observatory's director, Mustafa Erdik, urged residents not to
enter any damaged homes, warning they could topple from
aftershocks that Erdik said could last for days.
More than 100 aftershocks measuring up to 5.5 magnitude shook
the region on Monday alone.
In addition to the deaths, 34 people were being treated for
injuries, Turkey's crisis centre said.
Abdulkerim Sekerdag, 72, said he had just risen for early
morning prayers when the quake hit.
"The jolt threw me onto the ground," he told The Associated
Press. "When I got up I checked my animals and then I checked
on my neighbors."
"Two of them were buried. We pulled them out," he said,
adding that they were alive but injured.
Men used shovels and bare hands to dig two bodies out from
under piles of dirt, rubble and concrete blocks, video
footage showed. Both bodies were covered in blankets and
carried away. One appeared to be a baby or young child.
Women in veils gathered near the rescue scenes, some crying.
"Everything has been knocked down, there is not a stone in
place," said Yadin Apaydin, administrator for the village of
Yukari Kanatli, where three died.
Fifteen people were killed in the nearby village of Yukari
Demirci, Gov. Muammer Erol said, while four each were killed
in the villages of Kayalik and Gocmezler and 10 others died
after being taken to a hospital in the town of Kovancilar.
Most of the dead were immediately buried according to Muslim
traditions.
The temblor also knocked down barns, killing many farm
animals. A half-dozen dead cows were seen partially buried
near one collapsed home. One man, Haci Sekerdag, said he lost
eight cows and calves - his main livelihood.
The Turkish Red Crescent set up tents and villagers laid
plastic sheeting to shelter them from the cold and dirt. The
government said it rushed ambulance helicopters,
prefabricated homes and mobile kitchens into the stricken
area.
Erdogan blamed the region's mud-brick buildings for the many
deaths and said the government housing agency would build
quake-proof homes in the area.
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