Ankara: Rescue workers have pulled out 23 survivors from the rubble of three buildings, collapsed by an earthquake in eastern Turkey, the country's disaster management authority said on Thursday. At least seven were killed and dozens of others trapped.
Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said Wednesday's quake toppled 25 buildings in the city of Van but only three of them were occupied since the others have been evacuated after suffering damages in last month's powerful temblor.
Atalay said on Thursday that the rescue work was now concentrating at the site of two collapsed hotels and one apartment building. The disaster management authority said 23 survivors were pulled out along with the bodies of seven people.
The magnitude-5.7 quake was a grim replay of the previous magnitude-7.2 earthquake that hit on October 23, killing more than 600 people.
Ozgur Gunes, a journalist with Cihan news agency, was staying at the hotel but had just left the building when the earthquake struck on Wednesday night. He said there were journalists working in the lobby at the time.
"There were some small cracks, but we were told that there was no structural damage," he told Sky Turk television.
The Turkish Red Crescent immediately dispatched 15,000 tents and some 300 rescue workers, TRT said. There was no damage in the town of Edremit, the quake's epicenter.
About 1,400 aftershocks have rocked the region since the massive earthquake on October 23, which killed 600 and left thousands homeless. Many residents had been living in tents, despite the cold, too afraid to return to their homes. At least 2,000 buildings were destroyed in the stronger temblor and authorities declared another 3,700 buildings unfit for living.
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