Rescue mission continues three days after Turkey quake

Turks rescuing man trapped in the rubble

Rescue mission continues three days after Turkey quake

Three days after an earthquake killed more than 400 people in eastern Turkey, emergency workers have rescued a 27-year-old woman alive from a collapsed building on Wednesday as they continue their rescue mission.

Rising hope

While officials said prospects of finding survivors buried under tonnes of rubble were waning as time passed and winter temperatures fell and some teams were suspending searches, Gozde Bahar, an English teacher, was pulled out alive in the town of Ercis, the hardest hit by the quake.

She was said to be in critical condition as she was being transported to the hospital with her heart briefly stopped.

"Of course, I still have hope", Bahar's fiance, Hasan Gurcan, 29, said looking dazed as he relayed the news on his mobile.

The survival of a 14-day-old prematurely born baby girl called Azra rescued on Tuesday also lifted spirits.

"We have hope. There are always miracles. Normally, we do not expect anyone to survive after 72 hours but people have survived longer than that before”, said a rescue official standing by the collapsed building where Azra was found.

Search over

But a senior rescue official in Van told reporters that search and rescue operation in the centre of Van were over. “We have reached the bottom of the wreckage and searches are now over in the centre of Van," the official said.

"We don't think there are any more bodies inside this wreckage", an official from the Ankara civil defence union told reporters after pulling the woman out.

His group had giving up searching in the remains of what was a relatively new building.

Death toll

While the death toll as a result of the earthquake that struck eastern Van province near the Iranian border stood at 459, officials said it was likely to rise as many people were still missing.

On a main street in Van rescue workers pulled out the dead body of a woman in her 20s from the flattened remains of a seven-storey apartment block.

"Our bride, our angel has gone", said a small group of women who cried as the woman's corpse was brought out, sealed in a body bag and taken away in an ambulance.

Worrisome weather condition

Some women have begun to worry about the onset of cold weather.

"It's impossible to live in tents in Van. Look how cold it is and it is only October and now snow is on its way. We have a two-year-old child. What are we going to do with him?" said a woman in her 40s, who identified herself as Emine.

She said her family was sleeping in a car because, although their home had not collapsed, cracks made it uninhabitable.

Complaints over the lack of tents have also grown louder with each passing day, and some desperate survivors fought among themselves to try and grab tents being distributed by relief workers from the back of a truck.

The Turkish Red Crescent has been struggling to deliver fast enough to provide shelter for victims of the quake shivering in freezing temperatures at night.

Prisoners’ revolt

Prisoners in a jail in Van rioted on Tuesday because they feared they would be crushed in their cells when a 5.4 magnitude aftershock struck and spread panic.

The inmates set fire to the jail and fought their guards before troops were sent in to quell the violence and fire-fighters put out the flames.

Members of parliament from a pro-Kurdish party had to join negotiations between prisoners and officials to restore calmness.

"Inmates naturally wanted to go out in the yard after the strong aftershock. They weren't allowed, there was chaos", said parliamentarian Aysel Tugluk.

REUTERS/Shakira