Turkey

Iran’s Northwestern Cities Dispatch Rescue Teams to Quake-Hit Turkey

Officials of Iran’s Northwestern city of Khoy announced that they are dispatching several relief and rescue teams to Eastern Turkey to help the quake-stricken people in the city of Van and its surrounding areas.

A 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit just Northeast of the city of Van in Eastern Turkey near Iranian border at 1041 hours GMT (15:31 local time), causing deaths and injuries as buildings collapsed.

The same quake was felt with a 4.6-magnitude in Iran’s Northwestern province of West Azarbaijan, including the city of Khoy.

While early reports from Turkey said the earthquake killed between 500 and 1,000, injured hundreds of people and was followed by several aftershocks, Khoy Governor Gholam-Hossein Ammari told FNA that the quake caused no casualties or damage to properties in his city.

Ammari said several relief and rescue teams are leaving his city for Van in Turkey.

Also, deputy Head of the Coordination Council of West Azarbaijan’s Crisis Management Headquarters Seyed Javad Mahmoudi said all the relief and rescue teams of his province are on the alert to rush to Turkey’s aid as soon as Ankara demands.

Iran’s Red Crescent Society has also announced preparedness to dispatch rescue teams and cargo aids to Turkey.

Turkish sources said two more aftershocks of magnitude 5.6 struck the same region to the North of Van within just one hour.

Turkey’s Kandilli Observatory said the death toll could be between 500 and 1,000. At least 35 buildings are reported to have collapsed.

“The quake was strongly felt in Van and neighboring towns and caused damage and deaths, based on initial assessments,” the Turkish prime minister’s office said.

Ten buildings collapsed in Van and 25-30 in neighboring Ercis, Turkish officials said.

There are people trapped under the rubble.

“There are so many dead. Several buildings have collapsed. There is too much destruction,” Zulfikar Arapoglu, the mayor of Ercis, told NTV television. “We need urgent aid. We need medics.”

Serious damage and casualties were reported in the district of Celebibag. The mayor, Veysel Keser, told NTV, “There are many people under the rubble. People are in agony, we can hear their screams for help. We need urgent help.

Some houses collapsed in the province of Bitlis, and in nearby Mus the quake toppled the minarets of two mosques. NTV said Van’s airport was damaged and planes were diverted to neighboring cities.

Rescue workers and residents using their bare hands and shovels struggled to free people believed to be trapped under collapsed buildings, television footage showed.

Television pictures showed damaged buildings and vehicles in Van, and panicked residents spilling out into streets.

Rescue workers were searching through the wreckage of collapsed buildings in Van and the nearby town of Ercis for people thought to be trapped in the rubble.

Anatolia said 50 people had been taken to hospital in Van with injuries.

In Van, local official Veysel Keser said, “Many multi-floor buildings, hotels and a dormitory were collapsed.”

“We can hear voices from the collapsed buildings,” AFP news agency quoted him as saying.

Earthquakes are frequent both in Iran and Turkey because both countries sit on major geological fault lines.

In Iran, the deadliest quake happened in June 1990 and measured 7.7 on the Richter scale. About 37,000 people were killed and more than 100,000 injured in the northwestern provinces of Gilan and Zanjan. It devastated 27 towns and about 1,870 villages.

In Turkey, two earthquakes in 1999 with a magnitude of more than 7 killed almost 20,000 people in densely populated parts of the Northwest of the country.

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