Death Toll Reaches 38 in Turkey, Greek Island Quake

Three young children and their mother were rescued alive from the ruins of a collapsed building in western Turkey on Saturday, some 23 hours after a strong earthquake in the Aegean Sea killed at least 38 people and wounded more than 800 others. One of the children died shortly after being rescued, while the fourth child was still trapped.

The Friday afternoon quake that struck the Turkish Aegean coast and the north of the Greek island of Samos showed a magnitude of 6.6 for the Turkish authorities and 6.9 for other seismological institutions. It overthrew buildings in Izmir, Turkey's third-largest city, and caused a small tsunami in the Seferihisar district and on the Greek island. Hundreds of shocks followed.

At least 36 people were killed in Izmir, Turkish Presidency of Disaster and Emergency Management, or AFAD, said. Among them was an elderly woman who drowned in the tsunami. But Saturday's rescue teams came in touch with 38-year-old Seher Perincek and her four children—3, 7 and 10-year-old twins — inside a collapsed building in Izmir and cleared the corridor to get them out, reports AP.

One by one, the mother and three of her children had been rescued from the debris as rescuers cheered or hugged.

The survivors, including ten-year - old Elzem Perincek, were taken to the stretcher ambulances.

“I’m fine; I was rescued because only one of my feet was pinned. That foot really hurt,” she said.

The health minister and rescue worker Ahmet Yavuz told HaberTurk television hours later that one of the children had died after being rescued. They were still trying to reach the next boy, Yavuz said.

More than 5,500 rescuers from different agencies and cities worked together to reach survivors, at times hushing the crowds to listen into the rubble with sensitive headphones and crawling through the cracks. A 65-year-old man was saved 26 hours after the quake. Rescue work continued in nine buildings.

Earlier Saturday, search-and-rescue teams lifted teenager Inci Okan out of the rubble of a devastated eight-floor apartment building. Her dog, Fistik, or Pistachio, was also rescued, Turkish media reported.

A video showed a female rescuer trying to calm down the 16-year-old girl under the rubble as she inserted a catheter. “I’m so scared,” the girl cried. “Can you hold my hand?”

“We are going to get out of here soon,” the rescuer, Edanur Dogan, said. “Your mother is waiting outside for you.”

Two other women, aged 53 and 35, were brought out from the rubble of another toppled two-story building earlier on Saturday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Izmir and was being briefed at the crisis center.

About 100 people have been rescued since the earthquake, Murat Kurum, Minister of Environment and Urban Planning, told reporters. It was not clear how many more residents were stuck in buildings that had been leveled.

AFAD said that 885 people were injured in Izmir and three other provinces. The health minister said eight people were being treated in intensive care, three of whom were in critical condition.

Two teenagers were killed on the island of Samos after they had been hit by a wall that had collapsed. At least 19 people were injured on the island and two, including a 14-year-old, were airlifted to Athens and seven were hospitalized on the island, the health authorities said.

Samos was also affected by the small tsunami that struck the Turkish coast, with seawater flooding in the main port town of Vathi.

The earthquake, which was confirmed by the Istanbul-based Kandilli Institute to have a magnitude of 6.9, was centered in the Aegean northeast of Samos. The AFAD said it was measuring 6.6. And reached a depth of around 16 kilometers (10 miles).

It was felt across the eastern Greek islands, as far as Athens and Bulgaria. The regions of Aegean and Marmara, including Istanbul, shook in Turkey.

Turkey is crossed by fault lines and vulnerable to earthquakes. In 1999, two strong quakes killed about 18,000 people in north-western Turkey. Earthquakes are also popular in Greece.

Authorities warned the citizens of Izmir not to return to damaged buildings, saying that they could collapse in strong aftershocks. Many people spent the night out in the streets, too scared to return to their homes, even if they didn't suffer any harm.

The country has suffered from lightly regulated and shoddy construction which can lead to serious damage and deaths from earthquakes. Referring to the structure where the teenager and her dog were rescued, architect Nihat Sen told Turkish broadcaster NTV: “All material used on the eight-story building was faulty. The ground was bad, the material was bad.”

In a show of solidarity rare in recent months of tense bilateral relations, Greek and Turkish government officials issued mutual messages of solidarity, and the leaders of Greece and Turkey held a telephone conversation.

“I thank President Erdogan for his positive response to my call,” the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Saturday before traveling to Samos, where he visited the families of the teenagers who were killed.

Ties between Turkey and Greece have been especially tense, with warships both facing off in the eastern Mediterranean in a conflict over maritime borders and oil exploration rights. The current friction has led to concerns of an open war between the two neighbors and NATO 's nominal allies.

The quake happened when Turkey was still dealing with the economic crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. To date, more than 10,000 people with the virus have died in Turkey. The health minister said that the authorities were distributing masks and disinfectants to guard against Covid-19.