A powerful earthquake shook central Turkey on Sunday, toppling buildings, killing at least 45 people and injuring more than 170, authorities said.
Authorities did not expect the death toll to climb dramatically from the temblor, which was about one-tenth as powerful as two massive earthquakes that killed 18,000 people in the nation's west in 1999.
Deputy Governor Halil Ibrahim Turkoglu of the central Anatolian Afyon province said at least 45 people had been killed and that more than 150 buildings in the stricken area had collapsed. The most seriously damaged buildings were shops and public offices.
Rescue workers were trying to retrieve the bodies of a few people trapped under collapsed buildings.
In the worst-hit town, Sultandagi, rescue workers were digging with hands and shovels to pull out the bodies of a couple believed to be trapped under the debris of a three-story building that fell down.
"There is no sign of life," Mehmet Aslan, a rescue worker, said at the site after a sniffer dog went through the area. Sultandagi is located some 20 miles south of Bolvadin, the town at the quake's epicenter.
In some towns, terrified residents leapt from shaking homes. A crisis management center set up in the capital Ankara said that of the fatalities, four people had died in a collapsed industrial enterprise zone and another four in houses that gave way under the tremor.
SERIOUS MAGNITUDE
The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 at a depth of six miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which monitors quakes worldwide. A temblor of that strength can cause severe damage, especially if the epicenter is shallow, as it was in this case.
The epicenter was located some 120 miles southwest of Ankara and about 190 miles southeast of Istanbul.
Soldiers were setting up tent cities to house the homeless in Bolvadin, private NTV television reported. Many people fled the area.
Public Works Minister Abdulkadir Akcan said the government was sending 3,000 blankets and 1,000 tents to the region.
"In Afyon, there is a large number of slightly damaged buildings," Akcan said. "Because today is Sunday and shops are closed, a huge disaster was prevented."
The quake caused 15 buildings and the minarets of four mosques to collapse in Bolvadin.
The quake also cut telephone lines in the province of Afyon and authorities were assessing the damage in remote villages. Even where phones were working, lines were jammed as families and friends scrambled to get in touch with loved ones.
In villages in the area, the carcasses of animals lay amid the stones of collapsed barns and one-story homes, while fires blazed in a few houses.
WIDESPREAD DAMAGE
The quake was felt in the central provinces and as far as 300 miles away. In the neighboring province of Konya, one person died of a heart attack and seven people were injured after jumping out of windows and off balconies, state television said.
Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit appeared on national television to warn residents to stay away from damaged homes, and said he would visit the scene later Sunday.
"Tonight it is important that our citizens do not go back into their homes in areas that are not very safe," Ecevit said.
In Bolvadin, officials broadcast similar warnings to residents over loudspeakers. At a local hospital, doctors rushed patients into the garden to protect against any aftershocks.
Ahmet Mete Isikara, head of the Istanbul-based Kandilli Observatory, said that eight aftershocks followed the temblor, which struck at just after 9 am. The strongest aftershock had a preliminary magnitude of 5.3.
Most of Turkey lies on the North Anatolian fault and the country frequently is jolted by quakes. Ruptures in the fault caused two massive quakes in western Turkey in 1999, killing about 18,000 people.
Greece, which often has tense relations with Turkey, immediately offered to send rescue workers, Turkey's Foreign Ministry said. During the 1999 quakes, Greece also sent help, improving ties between the nations.
"We express our solidarity toward the troubled people and government of Turkey, who have again been struck hard by another earthquake," said Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou. "We express are our deepest condolences to the families of those lost."
The quake was felt on eastern Greek islands near Turkey's coast but caused no reported damage of injury.
(China Daily Februray 4,2002)
