Death toll from Aegean earthquake climbs to 64, over 900 injured
(Updates casualties)
Izmir, Nov 1 (efe-epa).- At least 62 people have been killed and nearly 900 injured in Turkey while two people died in Greece from the 6.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the Aegean coast at noon Friday.
“Sixty-two citizens have lost their lives. Out of 940 injured, 722 have already been discharged from hospitals and 218 are still under medical treatment,” the , the Turkish emergency service AFAD said Sunday in a statement.
“Search and rescue work continues in eight buildings in Izmir,” the brief statement added.
A total of 104 people have been rescued alive from the rubble of 17 collapsed buildings in the city of Izmir on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, Oktay said at a press appearance in the city, where 50 people have died.
Turkish emergency service teams were continuing operations on nine buildings in Turkey’s third largest city, which is home to some 4 million people.
The earthquake’s epicenter was 60 kilometers from the city in the Aegean Sea, near the Greek island of Samos, where two people lost their lives, while one woman in a town on Turkey’s coast drowned in the tsunami triggered by the earthquake.
The last person saved from under the rubble was reportedly a 70-year-old man, Ahmet Çitim, who was rescued shortly after midnight local time and transferred to a hospital after being trapped for 33 hours.
Several more bodies have been recovered since then, but no further survivors have been rescued.
In a nearby coastal town, one woman died after drowning in the tsunami triggered by the earthquake, while at least two people died on the Greek island of Samos, off Turkey’s coast.
