Turkey earthquake death toll rising

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Source: Reuters

An earthquake in south-eastern Turkey has killed more than 200 people, with hundreds more casualties feared. Rescue teams worked through Sunday night trying to free survivors crying out for help from under rubble.

The Turkish interior minister, Idris Naim Sahin, said the 7.2 magnitude quake on Sunday killed 100 in the city of Van and 117 in the badly hit town of Ercis, 60 miles (100km) further north. The death toll was expected to rise.

Overseeing emergency operations in Ercis, Sahin said a total of 1,090 people were known to have been injured and hundreds were missing.

Rescue efforts struggled to get into full swing following the quake, with electricity cut off as darkness fell on the towns and villages on the barren Anatolian steppe near the border with Iran.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/24/turkey-earthquake-death-toll-rises

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Yunus, a 13-year-old earthquake survivor, is pulled out of a collapsed building by rescue workers in Ercis near the eastern Turkish city of Van. Photograph: Umit Bektas/Reuters