Turkey strives to overcome quake disaster

Turkish officials are desperately trying to remedy the devastation caused by a powerful earthquake which killed over 2,000 people and lef...

Turkish officials are desperately trying to remedy the devastation caused by a powerful earthquake which killed over 2,000 people and left over ten thousand injured.

The earthquake, measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale, struck early in the morning of Tuesday with its epicentre at Izmit on the Marmara Sea and lasted about 45 seconds.

The quake also rocked the cities of Istanbul, Bursa and Sakarya and was felt in the capital Ankara, about 600 kilometres away, and the central Anatolian province of Kayseri.

8220;It is impossible at this point to give the exact toll of the quake,8221; Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit told reporters in Ankara just ahead of a cabinet meeting. 8220;There are still people under the rubble of collapsed buildings whom we hope are still alive,8221; he added.

According to figures provide by the Ankara crisis centre, 480 people were killed and 200 injured in Izmit alone. In Yalova town, neighbouring Izmit, meanwhile, 220 people were killed and 500 injured, the crisis centre said.

In Istanbul,which was badly damaged in the tremor, 157 people died and 3,726 were injured, while reports said residents were preparing to camp out along the Bosphorus for the night in fear of aftershocks. The crisis centre said that 150 people were killed in Sakarya bordering Izmit, 130 in the northwestern province of Bolu, 19 in Bursa province, 12 in Eskisehir in Central Anatolia and one in Zonguldak province on the Black Sea. A total of 1,124 people sustained injuries in these five provinces, it added.

Turkish aid officials began rushing in aid to the quake-hit area, but their work was hampered by road conditions, Ecevit said in Ankara.

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8220;Unfortunately, the aid we have dispatched arrived at the quake area at a late hour,8221; the premier said. 8220;But foreign countries have offered us help and Turkish teams Are doing their duty at the moment.8221; Anatolia also reported that expert teams from Germany and Russia arrived at Istanbul and left the city as soon as possible to participate in rescue efforts in the quakezone.

The report said that a six-member team from the German Red Cross organisation, accompanied by a doctor and four sniffer dogs, would work in Izmit, while the Russian search and rescue team of 70 experts left for Yalova. Meanwhile, rescue teams and humanitarian aid were due to arrive from other countries as well. Earlier in the day, the Turkish health ministry rushed 79 ambulances and more than 100 doctors and nurses to the area. The Turkish Red Crescent started flying aid to Golcuk and Istanbul on eight military planes.