At least 120 killed in Turkey quake

By SELCAN HACAOGLU

The Associated Press

DUZCE, Turkey --- Another strong earthquake struck western Turkey on Friday, leveling buildings, killing more than 120 people and wounding hundreds more. In a city plunged in darkness, doctors treated the injured in a garden, fearing the hospital would collapse.

The magnitude-7.2 quake struck just after nightfall and was centered on the town of Duzce, 115 miles east of Istanbul, said Ahmet Mete Isikara, head of Istanbul's Kandilli Observatory. It struck the same region as a massive temblor that devastated western Turkey in August, but not the worst-hit areas.

The Aug. 17 quake had a magnitude of 7.4 and killed more than 17,000 people in Turkey's industrial heartland.

"We are face-to-face with a new disaster," said President Suleyman Demirel.

The death told is expected to rise as rescuers dug through the rubble.

In Duzce, 500 people were rushed to the local hospital, where doctors worked in the garden after the building was evacuated due to quake damage. Sadettin Cakmakoglu, a doctor, said the hospital urgently needed painkillers and medicine.

"I am calling out SOS for Duzce," Anatolia quoted him as saying.

In the hospital garden, Nazmiye Belkis lay on the ground on a hospital mattress. She broke her right leg as she jumped from her second floor window as her apartment began to shake.

A few yards behind her mattress were 10 bodies covered with white shrouds or blankets.

"Look at them," she said, nodding her head toward the bodies. "I am lucky."

Electricity in Duzce was cut off to prevent fires from the quake. Rescuers brought out floodlights to dig for survivors in the collapsed buildings.

Turkish television showed people tearing away at mounds of rubble as they frantically tried to uncover relatives buried beneath collapsed buildings. In the town of Bolu, women stood at the foot of a pile of rubble weeping.

"The casualty numbers are constantly increasing as more dead and injured are being brought to hospitals," Haluk Tokucoglu, the Health Ministry undersecretary, told state-run TRT television.

Private NTV television quoted doctors earlier as saying that at least 46 people were killed and 1,000 injured in Duzce alone.

Rescue teams were expected from Greece, Algeria, Israel, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, the Czech Republic, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Denmark, Foreign Minister Ismail Cem said.

Within hours of the quake, Greece said it would send 40 fire department disaster workers, doctors and quake damage experts today on three military transport planes loaded with medical and other emergency supplies.

It was the latest offer of help between the two quake-prone neighbors that have set aside decades of hostility in the face of disaster. Each country has sent rescue teams to help the other after serious quakes struck the nations in recent months.

Collapsed buildings and overturned trucks lined the road into Duzce. Firefighters battled flames shooting out of several buildings.

Search teams worked under floodlights to rescue survivors.

Rescue workers at one site used a broken door as a stretcher to carry away an injured woman, and electrical wires to bind her broken leg.

At a local park, hundreds of people tried to keep warm amid the winter chill by huddling beside fires made of wood and old tires.

The town was in darkness as authorities cut the electricity after the quake to prevent fires.

In nearby Bolu, the earthquake set off explosions in buildings, which triggered fires, said the town's police chief, Ugur Gur. He said the road to Istanbul was torn apart and called for urgent medical aid from the capital, Ankara, 160 miles to the east.

In Adapazari, which was virtually leveled by the August quake, terrified residents leapt from their shaking buildings, said Cahit Kirac, the town governor. He said there were reports of injuries, but had no details.

"We are face-to-face with a new disaster."

--- SULEYMAN DEMIREL, Turkish president

--- The Associated Press

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