More survivors found as Turkey quake death toll reaches 481

VAN, TURKEY (BNO NEWS) — Three teachers and a university student were rescued in eastern Turkey on Wednesday, three days after a powerful earthquake devastated the region. The death toll has since reached 481.

Turkish media reports said two teachers and an 18-year-old student were rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building in Ercis, where scores of buildings were destroyed. The rescue came a day after a 14-day-old baby, her mother and grandmother were also rescued alive.

But the chances of finding more survivors continued to decrease on Wednesday as rescue workers were no longer able to detect signs of life. Some officials said the operation was slowly starting to concentrate on recovering bodies, rather than finding survivors.

Eastern Turkey was struck by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake at around 1.41 p.m. local time (1041 GMT) on Sunday. The epicenter of earthquake was about 16 kilometers (9 miles) north-northeast of Van, the capital of the province which carries the same name. It struck about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) deep.

Officials said that over 2,000 buildings in the city of Van and the surrounding region collapsed, trapping scores of people underneath the rubble. Officials at Turkey’s Kandilli Observatory estimated on Sunday evening that the final death toll could be as high as 1,000.

More than 4,700 rescue workers, including some 900 medical personnel, have rushed to the region after the earthquake, which is the country’s most powerful earthquake in over a decade. It remains unclear how many people are still missing, although the number is believed to be in the hundreds.

On late Wednesday evening, Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Administration (AFAD) confirmed the number of fatalities had risen to at least 481. The agency said 1,650 others were reported to have been injured, some of them critically.

The Turkish Red Crescent has so far distributed 23,137 tents, 10 collective sheltering tents, 108,486 blankets, 1,150 quilts, 37 portable kitchens, 3,051 kitchen sets, 6,359 catalytic stoves, 5,109 sleeping bags and one mobile oven. Rescue workers are also distributing three meals a day.

Sunday’s earthquake is the deadliest in Turkey since a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Düzce province in November 1999, just months after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck northwestern Turkey, killing at least 17,118 people and injuring nearly 50,000 others.