Powerful Earthquake Rocks Eastern Turkey

Full Story: Dawn

The earthquake of the intensity of 7.3 that rocked the Eastern Turkey's city of Van Sunday leaves up to 1,000 still buried under the rubble of fallen buildings. The quake was followed by an aftershock was of 5.6 magnitude. The Sunday's quake is the most powerful in years.“Many multi-floor buildings, hotels and a dormitory were collapsed,” said Veysel Keser, a local official from Van. Van, a city of 380,000 inhabitants mostly Kurds, is located more than 1,200 kilometres from the capital Ankara.

Turkey is earthquake-prone due to being crossed by several fault lines. In 1999, two strong quakes in the heavily-populated and industrialised regions of northwest Turkey left some 20,000 dead.

Posted in: Calamities, News