Rescue workers dug deeper into collapsed buildings on Tuesday in a battle against time to find survivors from an earthquake in southeast Turkey that killed at least 366 people and made tens of thousands homeless. As hope of finding people alive under tons of rubble faded with every passing hour, rescuers pulled out more bodies while residents slept around small fires in towns rattled by aftershocks across Van province, near the Iranian border. Five corpses were carried out in body bags from one crumpled building alone in the hard-hit town of Ercis as bystanders wept. Workers used heavy machinery, jackhammers, shovels, pick axes and bare hands to comb through smashed concrete and steel. Every so often, exhausted rescuers would shout for silence and generators and diggers would stop, straining to hear voices under the wreckage. Seconds later the drone of the machinery would start again. "Life has become hell. We are outside, the weather is cold. There are no tents," said Emin Kayram, 53, sitting by a camp fire in the town of Ercis after spending the night with his family of eight in a van parked nearby.
Rescue workers dug deeper into collapsed buildings on Tuesday in a battle against time to find survivors from an earthquake in southeast Turkey that killed at least 366 people and made tens of thousands homeless.
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As hope of finding people alive under tons of rubble faded with every passing hour, rescuers pulled out more bodies while residents slept around small fires in towns rattled by aftershocks across Van province, near the Iranian border.
Five corpses were carried out in body bags from one crumpled building alone in the hard-hit town of Ercis as bystanders wept. Workers used heavy machinery, jackhammers, shovels, pick axes and bare hands to comb through smashed concrete and steel.
Every so often, exhausted rescuers would shout for silence and generators and diggers would stop, straining to hear voices under the wreckage. Seconds later the drone of the machinery would start again.
"Life has become hell. We are outside, the weather is cold. There are no tents," said Emin Kayram, 53, sitting by a camp fire in the town of Ercis after spending the night with his family of eight in a van parked nearby.
His nephew was trapped in the rubble of a building behind him, where rescue workers had been digging through the night.
"He is 18, a student. He is still stuck in there. This is the third day but you can't lose hope. We have to wait here," he said.
Crowds formed at one demolished building where bystanders said a trapped boy had made contact by mobile phone.
As a rescue team dug at the rubble, one man screamed at the workers: "Where were you last night? I told you last night there were people here."
The Disaster and Emergency Administration said on Tuesday the death toll had risen to 366, with 1,301 people injured. The overnight death toll stood at 279.
The death count is likely to rise further as many people are still missing and 2,262 buildings have collapsed.
Casualties have been mostly in Ercis and the provincial capital Van. Officials are checking outlying areas.
Photo shows a man searching for his relatives under a collapsed building after an earthquake in Ercis, near the eastern Turkish city of Van, early October 24, 2011. Credit: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Article continues: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/25/us-turkey-quake-idUSTRE79M10Z20111025
