- (AFP) - Two powerful earthquakes rocked
western Turkey, killing at least 35 people, and authorities said they feared
the death toll would keep rising.
More than 150 people were injured as chaos hit the streets Sunday in Afyon
province, where police said panicked residents jumped from balconies and
windows as dozens of buildings collapsed, the Anatolia news agency reported.
"We fear that the death toll will rise," Construction Minister
Abdulkadir Akcan warned, saying a faultline crack had opened in the town
of Sultandagi, where most of the deaths had occurred.
But he added: "A huge disaster was prevented because it is Sunday
and the people were not at work."
At least 11 people were trapped under debris in the province of Afyon,
the interior ministry said, adding that 70 buildings had collapsed there.
A first quake rumbled through Afyon province at 0711 GMT, collapsing houses
and leaving at least eight people trapped under rubble and debris, Anatolia
said.
The rumbling was felt hundreds of kilometres (miles) away in central and
northwestern Turkey, it said.
A seismic monitoring centre in France said shortly afterward that a second
more powerful quake rocked the region a little more than an hour later.
It said the second quake measured 6.0 on the Richter scale and that the
first hit 5.6, while Turkish officials said the first quake had hit 6.0.
Turkey is criss-crossed by fault lines and two massive quakes in the west
of the country in 1999 killed around 20,000 people, with shoddy building
standards left to blame for many of the deaths.
Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, who left for the epicenter town of Bolvadin,
some 300 kilometers (190 miles) southwest of the capital Ankara, said the
authorities were taking the necessary measures.
Sunday's tremor knocked down the minarets of several mosques and caused
significant material damage to many buildings as well as to communication
infrastructure, media reports said.
Shocked residents remained in the streets, awaiting help and trying to
telephone relatives as aftershocks continued to jolt the region, the strongest
of them measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale according to the Istanbul seismological
institute.
Ecevit said that the disaster caused the most damage in Bolvadin as well
the towns of Sultandagi and Cay, and urged residents not to spend the night
in non-secure buildings.
After being caught hopelessly unprepared for the 1999 quakes, authorities
on Sunday immediately dispatched rescue teams and humanitarian supplies,
including 1,000 tents, to the region.
A field hospital was set up in Bolvadin, while crisis desks in related
ministries were coordinating rescue efforts.
Non-governmental search-and rescue groups, which mushroomed after the 1999
tragedy, also departed to Afyon.
The first international offer for assistance came from Turkey's long-time
rival neighbor Greece, but Turkish authorities said that the country was
not yet in need of foreign help.
The tremor was also felt in northwestern and central Turkey, including
the capital Ankara, where panicked residents rushed into the streets.
At least seven people outside the quake province were reported injured
after jumping in fear from balconies and windows.
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