Quake kills 108 in Turkey

ADANA, June 28: An earthquake that rattled this southern city has killed at least 108 people and injured about 1,000, news reports and witne...

ADANA, June 28: An earthquake that rattled this southern city has killed at least 108 people and injured about 1,000, news reports and witnesses said.Among those killed yesterday were 37 people who lived in the slums of Adana, a city of one million, according to Deputy Governor Ardahan Totuk. At least 30 people were reported dead in the nearby town of Ceyhan, the site of an oil terminal, the Anatolia news agency said. Turkey8217;s State radio said 107 people had been killed, and rescuers later pulled at least one more body from a collapsed building. The number of injured had reached about 1,000, sources said.

The hardest hit areas were slums with poorly constructed buildings. The quake shattered windows and caused cracks in several buildings, as well as damaging some mosques. Etem Zerenturk, 47, said he lost three relatives in one of the buildings that collapsed in Adana8217;s low-income Tepebagi district.8220;I got shocked when I heard that they were inside. They were so young,8221; he said.

The quake struck at 19.26hours IST and had a preliminary magnitude of 6.3, according to Istanbul8217;s Kandilli Observatory. The US Geological Survey put the preliminary magnitude at 6.2 and said the quake rattled the neighbouring provinces of Mersin, Nigde and Kayseri, as well as the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, off Turkey8217;s southern coast.

The temblor knocked out power in most of Adana. It was not clear whether the oil pipeline linking Iraq to Turkey had suffered any damage. Hundreds of people spent the night on blankets in public parks, grieving for their losses. 8220;I have no mom and no house any more,8221; said Arzu Oludag, 13, as she held her two-year-old brother in her arms on a sidewalk. 8220;The quake took away everything we owned in one night.8221;

Two of her younger sisters were sleeping nearby on a blanket, bruises covering their legs. The children8217;s father has been serving time in prison.Adana, where the quake was centred, is only 20 km from Incirlik, which serves as a staging ground for about 45 US and British jets thatpatrol a no-fly zone above the 36th parallel in northern Iraq. Some 1,400 personnel are part of the mission.