A 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the Aegean Sea and devastated Greece and Turkey as the death toll reached 71. The quake destroyed 20 buildings and left hundreds injured. Responders are racing against time to rescue survivors.
70-year older man rescued
The earthquake struck last Friday, injuring over 900. Seventy-year-old Ahmet Citim was pulled out from the building's rubble just after midnight last Sunday.
According to Fahrettin Koca, Turkey's Health Minister, he is recovering well in the hospital. He tweeted that the man "never lost hope."
Rescue workers carry Idil Sirin, a 14-year-old survivor, out of a collapsed building after an earthquake in the Aegean port city of Izmir, Turkey November 2, 2020. Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD)/
READ: Earthquake Jolts Turkey, Death Toll Reaches 19
Death toll rising
However, the search-and-rescue operators of Izmir City observed that by the third day after the quake, they seem to be digging up more dead bodies compared to survivors.
AFAD, the disaster & emergency management authority of the Turkish government, keeps count of Izmir's death toll. It reported that 949 individuals have so far been injured in the country, and over 220 are still under treatment as of Sunday.
Meanwhile, in Samos Island in Greece, two teenagers have been reported killed last Friday, with 19 others injured.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey, went to Izmir to monitor the rescue operations.
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Collapsing buildings
According to AFAD, there were 850 aftershocks so far, with 40 of them reaching magnitudes over 4.0.
According to Sinem Koseoglu of Al Jazeera, Izmir had 20 buildings that were constructed improperly, which caused them to collapse completely. She reported that rescue workers said that approximately 40 individuals had been stuck beneath the rubble, with some already rescued while others perished.
She said that the longer the rescue is conducted, the lesser the chances are of rescuing survivors.
Fuat Oktay, Vice President of Turkey, said that 26 buildings that have been severely damaged would be demolished.
The country has many old buildings that were illegally and cheaply constructed. These are prone to severe damage as well as deaths in times of earthquakes.
The country has tightened regulations to either reinforce or demolish these buildings. Urban renewal, however, is not proceeding as quickly as it should.
According to the country's justice minister, prosecutors already started to investigate the collapsed buildings and had promised repercussions should the experts find evidence of neglect.
Magnitude 7.0
The USGS said that the earthquake last Friday had a 7.0 magnitude and was centered at the Aegean Sea, northeast of Samos. According to AFAD, the depth of the quake was around 16 kilometers (or 10 miles).
The quake also caused a minor tsunami in Samos and in Izmir's Seferihisar District, which killed an older woman by drowning.
Turkey's western region felt the quake's tremors, along with Istanbul and Athens, the capital of Greece. Aftershocks by the hundreds then followed it.
Women and children affected.
Last Saturday, a mother who was trapped for nearly 18 hours together with her three children were rescued from an Izmir building which was flattened by the quake. One child died, according to Koca.
Her fourth child is still being rescued as of this writing.
Bleak picture
The quake occurred as Turkey still struggles with the economic repercussions of the ongoing pandemic. The woes brought about by the coronavirus, and this earthquake in the Aegean Sea have not made things easier for Greece and Turkey.
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