BAYRAKLI, (Turkey): Rescue workers were searching eight wrecked buildings in Izmir Sunday amid dwindling hope for survivors as the death toll from a powerful earthquake which hit western Turkey rose to 58.
The 7.0-magnitude quake also injured 930 people, the Turkish emergency authority AFAD said, after it struck Friday afternoon near the west coast town of Seferihisar in Izmir province.
More than 200 people were in hospital, AFAD said.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the death toll had risen by seven to 58.
There was desperation and overwhelming fear among families outside one collapsed building, with men and women in tears including a rescue worker whose eyes welled up, caught on video by local media.
Vice President Fuat Oktay during a visit to Izmir said that nearly 300 buildings were damaged although most were only lightly affected.
Overnight, 33 hours after the quake, a 70-year-old man was pulled out from underneath the rubble to the applause of onlookers and taken to hospital. The worst affected Turkish town was Bayrakli, where anxious families in thick blankets spent a second night in tents.
Others watched nervously as rescue workers went through the debris for a second day, including in a residential area where three buildings' lower floors collapsed, killing an undisclosed number.
Some privately expressed concern that hopes of finding more survivors were fading as the hours pass by. But a worker at the site of one collapsed building, who did not wish to be named, told AFP they believed at least 10 people could still be under the rubble. Nearly 6,000 rescuers have been working all day and all night since Friday, mechanical diggers helping them remove blocks of concrete.
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