ANKARA, Oct 24: Turkish families wept in joy and sorrow on Monday as a few lucky survivors and many more victims were pulled out of the rubble after a 7.2-magnitude quake levelled over a hundred apartment and office buildings.

One trapped man saved his own life by calling for help on his cellphone, and others survived being buried alive for more than a day.

But as death toll rose to 279 from Sunday’s quake in eastern Turkey, dozens of people were still trapped in mounds of broken concrete, twisted steel and other construction debris after buildings in two cities and mud-brick homes in nearby villages pancaked or partially collapsed.

Dozens more were placed in body bags or covered by blankets, laid down in rows so people could search for their missing relatives.

“It’s my grandson’s wife. She was stuck underneath rubble,” said Mehmet Emin Umac.

Worst-hit was Ercis, where about 80 multi-story buildings collapsed. The eastern city of 75,000 population lies close to the Iranian border in one of Turkey’s most earthquake-prone zones.Grieving families cried outside the Ercis mosque.

“My nephew, his wife and their child, all three dead. May God protect us from this kind of grief,” resident Kursat Lap told The Associated Press. “They all came here for a Sunday breakfast and then what happened, happened.”

Several other men carried a child’s body wrapped in a white cloth as weeping family members followed behind.

Yalcin Akay, meanwhile, 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 20 hours after the quake struck, officials said.

Two other survivors were trapped for over 27 hours.

Abdurrahman Antakyali, 20, was brought out of a crumbled Internet cafe after an eight-hour long joint rescue effort by Turkish and Azerbaijani teams. His father and brother wept with joy as he emerged, Anatolia reported.

Tugba Altinkaynak, 21, had been at a family lunch with 12 other relatives when the temblor hit. She was rescued but there was no immediate word on the fate of her relatives.

More than 2,000 teams with a dozen sniffer dogs were involved in search-and-rescue and aid efforts, and more often than not they found dead bodies, not survivors. Cranes and other heavy equipment lifted slabs of concrete, allowing residents to dig for the missing with shovels.

Those efforts were hampered by over 200 aftershocks that rocked the area, with one on Monday rising up to 5.0 magnitude.

Aid groups scrambled to set up tents, field hospitals and kitchens to help the thousands left homeless or too afraid to re-enter their homes. Many exhausted residents spent the night outside, 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.”The bustling, larger city of Van, about 55 miles (90 kilometres) south of Ercis, also sustained substantial damage, but Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said search efforts there were winding down.

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said the quake left 279 dead and some 1,300 injured. Other officials said 10 victims were students learning about the Quran at a religious school that collapsed. Mr Arinc said search-and-rescue efforts could end as early as Tuesday.

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.

The terrifying moments of the powerful temblor still haunted many.

Abubekir Acar, 42, was sipping tea with friends as the quake levelled a nearby coffee house.“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.”

Leaders around the world, including President Barack Obama, conveyed their condolences and offered assistance, but Mr Erdogan said Turkey was able to cope for now. Azerbaijan, Iran and Bulgaria still sent aid, he said.—AP