BAYRAKLI: Rescuers raced against the clock to save people trapped under rubble in Turkey on Saturday as anguished mourners buried the first victims of a powerful earthquake that claimed 30 lives.

The 7.0-magnitude quake killed 28 people and injured nearly 900 in Turkey after striking on Friday afternoon near the west coast town of Seferihisar in Izmir province.

Also killing two teenagers on their way home from school in Greece, it caused a mini-tsunami on the Aegean island of Samos and a sea surge that turned streets into rushing rivers in one Turkish coastal town.

Turkish authorities registered nearly 600 aftershocks, dozens of them stronger than 4.0 magnitude, complicating the search for those believed to be still breathing under mountains of concrete debris.

In Bayrakli, near the Turkish coastal resort city of Izmir that was heaviest hit, families and friends looked on in agony, exhaustion and hope as workers painstakingly lifted slabs of flattened apartment blocks.

Jubilation, relief and tears of joy greeted every recovered survivor. Cries of pain accompanied black bags holding bodies removed from the disaster zone. “Let me see who it is!” one man shouted.

Prime Minister Imran Khan talks to President Erdogan, conveys condolences over the loss of precious lives in the quake

In small green spaces close to the damaged buildings, tents went up for frightened families to spend the night.

“It was so cold last night,” said Nilgun Yikariz, 59, who was sleeping on the grass in a small tent outside her destroyed apartment.

Nearby, Azize Akkoyun recognised parts of her family’s apartment in the ruins as she waited for news about her missing loved ones.

“Those curtains, they belonged to my daughter’s in-laws,” Akkoyun said.

“God willing they will come out alive.”

Hope grew that more survivors could be found following reports in Turkish media that a mother and her three children were rescued some 23 hours after disaster struck.

A 53-year-old and 62-year-old were also pulled out alive hours after the quake, media reports said.

The government’s disaster agency AFAD said 100 people have been rescued.

But the wait was agonising and the recovery work excruciatingly slow, punctuated by long silences in which rescuers — often stretched out on their knees, with their heads poking into open cracks — listened for signs of life.

As his family settled inside their white tent, Cemalettin Enginyurt, 51, described feeling “helpless”.

The retired soldier said his family’s home suffered “serious” cracks and he feared people being unable to tell if their homes were fit to return to.

“As it currently is and with the risk of aftershocks, we decided the solution was to stay outside,” he said.

Telephonic conversation

Prime Minister Imran Khan telephoned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and conveyed condolences of the government and people of Pakistan over the loss of precious lives in the earthquake.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Mr Khan prayed for the full and swift recovery of those injured in the calamity.

An official press release issued late in the night quoted the prime minister as telling Mr Erdogan that given the strong bonds between the two nations, the people of Pakistan shared the pain of their Turkish brothers and sisters and would stand by them just as they did when a strong quake hit parts of Pakistan in 2005.

Mr Khan offered to provide all possible support and assistance to the Turkish people in this hour of grief. The two leaders also discussed the recent terrorist attack on a mosque in Pakistan.

The two leaders also shared concerns on the rising tide of Islamophobia in the Western world, particularly in Europe. The prime minister reiterated that leaders of the Muslim world must take the lead in breaking this cycle of hate and extremism against Muslims.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2020