At least 85 dead after 7.2 quake in Turkey

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VAN, TURKEY (NEWS1130) – At least 85 people have been killed after a 7.2 earthquake rocked Turkey this morning.  Hundreds of others have been injured and the death toll is expected to rise throughout the coming days.

The powerful quake was centred around the eastern city of Van, which sits close to the Turkish border with both Iraq and Iran.  Turkey’s Kandilli observatory initially gave it a preliminary magnitude of 6.6.

Immediately following the quake, a Turkish news agency says rescue workers were trying to reach people believed to be trapped under the wreckage of a seven-storey building in Van.

“Two buildings collapsed in Van, but the telephone system is jammed due to panic and we can’t assess the entire damage immediately,” Bekir Kaya, the mayor of Van, told NTV television.

“There are so many dead. Several buildings have collapsed, there is too much destruction,” said Zulfikar Arapoglu, the mayor for the town of Ercis told NTV television.

“We need urgent aid, we need medics,” he added.

The quake’s epicenter was in the village of Tabanli in eastern Van province. It was strongly felt in neighbouring provinces, according to NTV television.

Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which is crossed by fault-lines.  In 1999, nearly 18,000 people were killed by two powerful earthquakes that struck the northwestern part of the country.

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