Rescue Teams Searching For Survivors under Rubble after Turkey-Greece Quake

The local rescue teams are working continuously in the port city of Turkey, searching for survivors that might be stuck beneath large amounts of rubble and debris after multiple building collapsed due to a strong earthquake that struck Izmir. The current death count from the earthquake has increased to 27 mortalities, with more than 800 individuals injured. The same earthquake was also experienced on the Greek island of Samos.

The delicate and critical procedure of searching for survivors buried deep beneath the collapsed rubble in the Turkish city of Izmir after numerous aftershocks were observed in the area. According to the United States Geological Survey, the Turkey-Greece earthquake was of 7.0 magnitudes, but Turkey has classified it as a 6.6 magnitude earthquake that caused massive damage to the area and takes multiple hours in searching for survivors.

Due to the earthquake movements, large tidal waves were triggered, which later hit the nearby islands and coastal areas in both Greece and Turkey. Until now, while searching for survivors, twenty-five individuals are confirmed to have died due to the building collapse in the city of Izmir, while a girl and a boy died in Greece after a brick wall collapse on both of them.

Continuous efforts are being provided by the local rescue teams and volunteers for searching for survivors within the collapsed buildings as more than twenty buildings in the area have been reported destroyed due to the sudden movement of the earth’s tectonic plates. According to the officials present at the destruction site, around 8 buildings have been thoroughly searched for any remaining surviving individual under the rubble, while the operations of the remaining buildings are still going on.

The public statement from the Turkish Minister for Environment and Urbanization states that around 100 individuals were successfully pulled out alive while searching for survivors under the destroyed debris of buildings. While searching for survivors, a 16 year girl accompanied by her dog was found out alive beneath the destructive concrete on early Saturday morning.

To help with the affected families by the earthquake, local authorities have set up a help camp in the central region of Izmir, which supported around 2,000 people and provided them with sleeping accommodations during the night, amid rising fears for surround building collapse in the area.

Soon after the earthquake, the local government deployed around 4,000 rescues working for staff along with 475 rescue vehicles and 20 highly specialized sniffing hounds to help in searching for survivors beneath tons of concrete material.

But due to the 400 aftershocks experienced in the area after 7.0 magnitude earthquake, the working of rescue teams was hindered frequently while searching for survivors, out of which 33 were recorded to be above the magnitude of 4.0.

Turkey-Greece Earthquake

The 7.0 magnitude earthquake recorded by the USGS struck Samos Island, which is 14 kilometers far from the town of Karlovasi in Greece, at 13:51 local time. It was observed that the seismic activity struck 21 kilometers below the sea level of the earth, and its tremors were experienced in far-off cities, including Istanbul and Athens. Although according to the officials in Turkey, the upheaval of tectonic plates was 16 kilometers beneath the ground level.

Most of the property damage was observed in the Turkish port city of Izmir, which caused sudden chaos as people immediately ran in the streets due to impulsive and abrupt fear response. There were also reports regarding the rise in sea level in the coastal areas of Izmir, due to which one individual was reported to have died after their wheelchair was overturned due to a sudden massive wave.

Both Greece and Turkey are located at fault lines, due to which earthquakes are a reoccurring event in the region.

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