Turkey earthquake: Four quake survivors pulled out alive

Turkey earthquake: Dozens of people were trapped in mounds of concrete, twisted steel and construction debris after hundreds of buildings in two cities and mud-brick homes in nearby villages pancaked or partially collapsed in the earthquake that struck Sunday afternoon.

Four people were pulled alive from the rubble Monday when one managed to call for help on his cell phone after a 7.2-magnitude quake leveled buildings and killed some 272 people in easternTurkey

Dozens of people were trapped in mounds of concrete, twisted steel and construction debris after hundreds of buildings in two cities and mud-brick homes in nearby villages pancaked or partially collapsed in the earthquake that struck Sunday afternoon.

Worst-hit was Ercis — an eastern city of 75,000 close to the Iranian border that lies in one of Turkey's most earthquake-prone zones — where about 80 multistory buildings collapsed.

Yalcin Akay was dug out from a collapsed six-story building with a leg injury after he called a police emergency line on his phone and described his location, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported. Three others, including two children, were also rescued from the same building in Ercis some 20 hours after the quake struck, officials said.

Rescuers searched for the missing throughout the night under generator-powered floodlights as tearful families members waited by the mounds of debris. Cranes and other heavy equipment lifted slabs of concrete, allowing residents to dig for the missing with shovels.

Aid groups scrambled to set up tents, field hospitals and kitchens to help the thousands left homeless or those too afraid to re-enter their homes. Many exhausted residents spent the night outdoors lighting fires to keep warm.

"We stayed outdoors all night, I could not sleep at all, my children, especially the little one, was terrified," said Serpil Bilici of her six-year-old daughter, Rabia. "I grabbed her and rushed out when the quake hit, we were all screaming."

Over 100 aftershocks rocked the area Monday morning, with three of them reaching 4.7 magnitude, after another 100 aftershocks reverberated Sunday.

The bustling, larger city of Van, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) south of Ercis, also sustained substantial damage, but Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said search efforts there were winding down.

Sahin expected the death toll in Ercis to rise, but not as much as initially feared. He told reporters rescue teams were searching for survivors in the ruins of 47 buildings where dozens could be trapped, including a cafe.

"There could be around 100 people (in the rubble)," Sahin said. "But we are not talking about thousands."

Authorities said the earthquake has left 272 dead and some 1,100 injured. Ten of the victims were students learning about the Quran at a religious school that collapsed.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who inspected the area late Sunday, said "close to all" the mud-brick homes in surrounding villages had collapsed in the temblor that also rattled parts of Iran and Armenia.

In Ercis, a team specializing in mine disaster rescues combed through what once was a student dormitory.

"Four or five (apartments) have been leveled," team member Mustafa Bilgin said. "University students are said to be living here. We don't know how many of them are still inside."

Dozens of people huddled around the building, silently watching the rescue work. A woman who lost her parents sat on the ground near another crumpled building, sobbing.

The terrifying moments of the powerful temblor still haunted many.

"I was in the street and saw the buildings sway," Hasan Ceylan, 48, surveying the wreckage of his three businesses, including a grocery store and a veterinary clinic.

Abubekir Acar, 42, was sipping tea with friends as a nearby coffee house was leveled.

"We did not understand what was going on, the buildings around us, the coffee house all went down so quickly," he said. "For a while, we could not see anything — everywhere was covered in dust. Then, we heard screams and pulled out anyone we could reach."

More than 2,000 teams with a dozen sniffer dogs were involved in search-and-rescue and aid efforts.

Several countries offered assistance but Erdogan said Turkey was able to cope for the time being. Azerbaijan, Iran and Bulgaria still sent aid, he said.

The government said it would offer favorable loans to help rebuild small businesses.

Among those offering help were Israel, Greece and Armenia. The offer from Israel came despite a rift in relations following a 2010 Israeli navy raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that left nine Turks dead. Greece, which has a deep dispute with Turkey over the divided island of Cyprus, also offered to send a special earthquake rescue team.

Armenian President Serge Sarkisian proposed helping during talks in Moscow with Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev, when the two leaders called their Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul, Anatolia reported. Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic ties due to tensions over the Ottoman-era mass killings of Armenians and the conflict in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Leaders around the world conveyed their condolences and offered assistance.

"We stand shoulder to shoulder with our Turkish ally in this difficult time, and are ready to assist," President Barack Obama said.

Turkey lies in one of the world's most active seismic zones and is crossed by numerous fault lines. In 1999, two earthquakes with a magnitude of more than 7 struck northwestern Turkey, killing about 18,000 people.

Istanbul, the country's largest city with more than 12 million people, lies in northwestern Turkey near a major fault line, and experts say tens of thousands could be killed if a major quake struck there due to overcrowding and shoddy construction.