Quake Shakes Eastern Turkey Eds: CORRECTS location to eastern Turkey; ADDS details
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1) An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.6 shook eastern Turkey Tuesday night, causing damages and injuries.
2) The quake hit the region twice at 8:51 (1851 GMT), causing injuries and damage in the eastern Anatolian town of Pulumur, Recep Yazicioglu, governor of Erzincan, told HBB television. Details were not available.
3) Tunceli governor Atil Uzelgun said 5 buildings had been damaged in Pulumur and Nazimiye, the Anatolia news agency reported.
4) Uzelgun said tents were being distributed to people who decided to spend the night outside, fearing further tremors.
5) The epicenter was halfway between Tunceli and Bingol, 850 kilometers (530 miles) southwest of the capital Ankara, Istanbul's Kandilli observatory said.
6) The area was shaken by three more moderate tremors after the initial quake, according to the Ataturk University observatory in Erzurum. The quakes were felt in the provinces of Tunceli, Bingol, Erzurum, Erzincan, Mus and Elazig, the observatory added.
7) Ismail Akgul, a spokesman at the Interior Ministry in Ankara told The Associated Press they were unable to contact the areas hit worst.
8) A strong earthquake with a 6.0 magnitude killed 90 people in October in Dinar in western Turkey.
9) Turkey's southeastern and entire eastern region sit on the Anatolian fault.


Moderate Earthquake Shakes Eastern Turkey
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1) An earthquake measuring 5 shook the eastern Turkish cities of Erzurum and Bingol on Wednesday morning. No damage or casualties were reported.
2) The epicenter of the quake, which struck 8:11 a.m. (0511 GMT), was 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Erzurum and 900 kilometers (540 miles) east of the capital Ankara, according to the Ataturk University's seismology center.
3) Turkey's Aegean and Mediterranean coastal areas and eastern region sit atop an earthquake-prone area known as the Anatolian fault.
4) A magnitude-5 quake can cause damage to homes.


URGENT At least 135 children buried under debris after dormitory collapses in strong quake in Turkey
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1) At least 135 children were buried Thursday under the debris of a collapsed school dormitory after a strong earthquake struck southeastern Turkey, a provincial governor said.
2) It was unclear whether any students were killed, Gov. Huseyin Avni Cos told private NTV television. The dormitory is located in the town of Bingol, 690 kilometers (430 miles) east of Ankara.
3) The magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck the region around 3:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) Thursday and was centered just outside Bingol, the Kandilli seismology center in Istanbul said.
4) NTV reported at least 13 people killed and hundreds of homes destroyed in the nearby village of Cimenli. MORE


URGENT ANKARA: Istanbul said.
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1) At least 30 people were killed, more than 300 injured and hundreds of homes were destroyed in the quake, Turan said.
2) Bingol Mayor Feyzullah Karaaslan said he feared the death toll could rise dramatically.
3) ``As the hours go by, the news from Bingol gets more sad. We estimate the death toll to be around 150, there are about 300 injured,'' he said, adding that soldiers were on their way from the capital Ankara to help with the rescue operations.
4) Doctors at Bingol's state hospital said 11 dead and more than 200 injured had been brought to the hospital so far. Ten were in serious condition, said Ilhan Cokabay, chief doctor at Bingol.
5) ``We need every kind of help,'' Cokabay said. ``Medical supplies, people, whatever.'' MORE


URGENT ANKARA: people, whatever.''
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1) The town of Cimenli was one of the most hard hit, reports said.
2) ``Everything is destroyed. There are no buildings standing,'' Nihat Bartamay, who was helping the rescue effort in Cimenli, told private television NTV. He said he pulled 13 bodies out of several collapsed homes.
3) The temblor also was felt in the nearby provinces of Erzincan, Tunceli, Bingol, Erzurum, Kayseri and Sivas.
4) Hundreds of people were roaming the streets of Cimenli, and TV footage showed dozens of mud homes destroyed. A number of strong aftershocks struck the area, including one with a magnitude 5, NTV reported.
5) ``The quake lasted 17 seconds and we think that it was a quake which could cause considerable damage,'' Gulay Barbarasoglu, head of the observatory, told Turkish state television.
6) The quake damaged power and telephone lines in the area and cut off electricity. Mobile phone service also appeared to be out in Bingol.
7) A magnitude-6 quake can cause severe damage.
8) Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which lies on the active North Anatolian fault.
9) Ruptures in the fault caused two quakes in August 1999 that killed some 18,000 people and devastated large parts of northwestern Turkey. ea-sf-ht


Strong quake kills at least 84 in Turkey; scores of children trapped in collapsed dormitory
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1) A strong earthquake shook southeastern Turkey on Thursday, killing at least 84 people and injuring 390 others. Rescuers dug frantically in the rubble of a school dormitory, hunting for more than 100 children believed trapped.
2) Several dozen children had already been saved from under the debris of the boys school, while hundreds of terrified parents prayed and screamed waiting for news of their children.
3) Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at least 84 people were killed, while Housing Minister Zeki Ergezen said the estimated death toll could be 150 throughout the region.
4) Crews were working to rescue 118 primary and middle school students still buried under the four-story dormitory that collapsed in the village of Celtiksuyu, Industry Minister Ali Goskun said. At least 69 children had been rescued, emergency workers said.
5) Five students and one teacher were found dead, Bingol Mayor Feyzullah Karaaslan said.
6) ``My friends are waiting for help in there. They were calling for help as they were pulling me out,'' 12-year-old Veysel Dagdelen was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency after he was rescued from the debris.
7) The magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck around 3:27 a.m. (0027 GMT) Thursday and was centered just outside Bingol, 700 kilometers (430 miles) east of Ankara, the Kandilli seismology center in Istanbul said.
8) At least 25 buildings and a bridge collapsed in the center of Bingol, a city of 250,000 inhabitants, the mayor said. Damage could be seen throughout the city, where the streets were filled with terrified residents.
9) The earthquake damaged power and telephone lines in the area. More than 100 aftershocks hit the region, and rescue workers were unable to reach many villages.
10) At the remnants of the school dorm, soldiers, rescuers and locals worked their way through the debris with cranes and jackhammers to try to save surviving students. Many students were being treated for their injuries on mattresses laid out near the flattened building.
11) Voices of the trapped children could be heard from under the debris, while soldiers tried to prevent hundreds of desperate relatives from approaching the collapsed building.
12) Naim Gencgul, a 15-year-old boy, was pulled out of the rubble with a broken arm.
13) ``The whole building was on top of me. We all started screaming,'' he said.
14) His elder brother, Sami Gencgul, had two sons in the school. His son Muslum, 14, is still missing.
15) ``We never expected something like this would happen. We sent our kids here because there are no cars in our village,'' said Gencgul. ``Muslum is a good boy.''
16) TV footage showed a soldier carrying a boy from the school's wreckage, amid cheers from onlookers. The boy could be heard shouting, ``Father!''
17) Parents questioned the quality of the school's construction.
18) ``The stable I built did not collapse, but the school did,'' Gunala's father, Abdullah Gunala said.
19) Erdogan visited the quake area, and said proper inspections had not been carried out and that shoddy material had been used to build the school.
20) ``Investigations will be launched and the guilty will be prosecuted,'' he said.
21) Thousands of poorly built buildings collapsed when two massive earthquakes struck western Turkey in 1999, killing some 18,000 people.
22) Nazim Karabulut, a resident of Bingol, described the school as a ``terrible construction.''
23) ``Nobody ever learned their lessons,'' he said.
24) Doctors at Bingol's state hospital appealed for help to deal with the crisis. The hospital was seriously damaged in the quake and scores of injured were being treated outside.
25) ``We need every kind of help,'' said Ilhan Cokabay, chief doctor at the hospital. ``Medical supplies, people, whatever.''
26) The mayor said the city also needed more large tents. The Red Crescent sent 3,100 tents, 13,000 blankets, as well as mobile kitchens, generators, ambulances, and four tons of food supplies, Anatolia reported. Soldiers, emergency workers and mountaineers with rescue experience were also headed to the area.
27) The temblor was felt in the nearby provinces of Erzincan, Tunceli, Bingol, Erzurum, Kayseri and Sivas.
28) The quake lasted 17 seconds, said Gulay Barbarasoglu of the Istanbul observatory.
29) Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which lies on the active North Anatolian fault. A 1971 quake in Bingol killed 900 people. ea-za-ht


Rescuers work against time searching for children trapped by deadly Turkish earthquake
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1) Noisy equipment fell silent as searchers listened Friday for any sign of life under a flattened school dormitory where about 70 children remained trapped since a strong earthquake rocked eastern Turkey.
2) Working against time, the rescuers hoped to reach them alive and one boy was rescued Friday morning after spending more than 30 hours under the rubble.
3) Rescuers applauded as Enef Gunce, apparently with only slight injuries, was carried down on a stretcher and quickly put in ambulance.
4) But hopes were beginning to fade as the bodies of 40 children were found.
5) ``I have been sitting here since yesterday morning,'' said Gazal Gunalan, whose 15-year-old son Mehmet was buried under the rubble. ``At the beginning I was expecting him to come out alive ... now I'm waiting for his body.''
6) Meanwhile, tensions rose in Bingol where police fired shots with automatic M-16s in the air to disperse a crowd of up to 1,000 people protesting the lack of tents and other aid.
7) Several people were injured in the protest after a police van sped through the crowd. Some were injured by flying stones, private televisions CNN-Turk and NTV reported.
8) Hundreds of aftershocks have hit the region since the initial 17-second temblor, leaving thousands who refuse to enter their homes stranded in the streets.
9) The Turkish Red Crescent has sent 3,700 tents and 13,000 blankets to the region, but Sevket Ozbay, an official at the emergency desk said 10,000 more tents were needed, along with food and drinking water.
10) The quake's epicenter was just outside the nearby city of Bingol, 700 kilometers (430 miles) east of Ankara. Bingol is a rural, poor area in the predominantly Kurdish southeast that suffered years of fierce fighting between the Turkish army and Kurdish autonomy-seeking rebels. The rebel war left a deep distrust between Kurds and Turkish security forces.
11) Bingol's governor Huseyin Avni Cos said the official toll on Friday stood at 105. About 1,000 people were injured in the quake.
12) At the school, rescuers found five children alive and 12 dead overnight.
13) Major Oguz Tozak, in charge of a rescue team at the school, said he feared up to two-thirds of the students still trapped may be dead.
14) ``I saw an entire dormitory ward squashed under the ceiling with at least eight children crushed to death inside,'' said rescuer Semsettin Sayan Friday morning.
15) Intermittently, rescuers turned off generators and lights to scan the rubble with sensitive microphones to detect any sounds. Sniffer dogs climbed on the debris hunting for survivors.
16) Rescuers dug a passage from the basement through the rubble to the flattened third floor where two children were believed to be alive. But no one was found there.
17) Rescue workers used children's blankets to carry debris from the collapsed building and notebooks and school books were scattered across the site.
18) The 198 students in the dorm, ages 7 to 16, were asleep when the magnitude 6.4 quake struck early Thursday morning and collapsed the Celtiksuyu boarding school. So far, 90 were rescued alive from the rubble, leaving about 70 still unaccounted for.
19) Hundreds of people, most of them relatives of the missing students, kept vigil near the rubble, wailing and praying under the floodlights used to keep up the search through the night.
20) The building's collapse again focused attention on poor construction methods which have been blamed for heavy death tolls in previous quakes in Turkey.
21) Nihat Ozdemir head of the Turkish Contractors' Union said contractors were not being inspected carefully, while Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to prosecute those responsible for shoddy construction.
22) ``They stole these children's lives,'' headlined daily Milliyet, reporting that the material used to built the school was outdated.
23) The primary and middle boarding school was built in 1999 mainly for the children of farmers from surrounding villages that have no schools and poor transportation services. It also represented the hope for a better future for the children of poor Kurds, who are often illiterate.
24) ``My son always said 'I don't want to stay uneducated like you Dad. I want a different life,''' said Nihat Bezekci, whose 11-year-old son Ahmet was still trapped in the building. ``If I had been able, I wish I had sent him to a better school, not here.''
25) Bezekci said he tried to keep his hopes up all night.
26) ``But now my hopes have totally collapsed. I suppose God had written his destiny,'' said the Kurdish farmer.
27) Much of the country sits atop the active North Anatolian fault and tremors are frequent. A 1971 quake in Bingol killed 900 people.
28) jh-ea-ht


Death toll rises to 176 in Turkish quake
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1) Officials on Monday raised the death toll in last week's 6.4-magnitude quake to 176 and closed down schools in the region for an early summer recess after a dormitory collapsed killing 83 children.
2) Many parents are reticent to send their children back to school after Thursday's quake leveled the primary and middle boarding school, trapping 198 students under the rubble.
3) The quake brought down 300 buildings and damaged more than 5,000, said Bingol Governor Huseyin Avni Cos, who announced the new toll. Officials in Bingol said the toll had increased because some families had informed authorities of deaths only recently.
4) Cos said 7,000 tents had already been handed out to those made homeless by the quake and another 2,600 would be distributed Monday. Hundreds of local Kurds called for Cos' resignation Friday in a violent protest over the lack of tents, food and water. Protesters clashed with police leaving 19 injured.
5) Cos also said that students in the region of Bingol, the main city hit by the quake, could start their summer vacation a month early, except those in the last year of middle and high school who face an exam in June. Those students will be taught in tents.
6) Meanwhile, the Bingol Bar Association appealed to prosecutors to open an investigation against officials at the municipality, the governor's office, and at the public works and education offices for failing to prevent the collapse of the school in the town of Celtiksuyu.
7) Officials admit that the building was made with shoddy material, and critics say it was never inspected.
8) Turkish officials have lagged in increasing inspections and prosecuting contractors suspected of not following building regulations although poor construction has been identified as the cause of many deaths in the 1999 quakes that killed 18,000 in western Turkey.
9) Cabinet spokesman Cemil Cicek said Monday the government planned to stiffen laws governing public construction tenders and impose harsher punishments for building code violations to make sure that public buildings are well built.
10) Several other schools were damaged during the quake and officials said boarding schools throughout the country would be inspected.
11) Much of Turkey lies atop the North Anatolian fault and quakes are frequent. ht-sf-za


Moderate quake shakes eastern Turkey; at least six killed
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1) A moderately strong earthquake shook eastern Turkey on Thursday, killing at least six people, including four children, an official said.
2) The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 5.1, was centered in the town of Cat, in Erzurum province, some 900 kilometers (540 miles) east of Ankara, the capital, the Istanbul-based Kandilli Observatory said. It occurred at 9:30 p.m. (1830 GMT).
3) Gov. Mustafa Malay told state-run TRT television that a house in a village near the town of Askale collapsed in the temblor, killing four children. Two other people were also killed, the governor later told private NTV television, but gave no details.
4) Malay said another person was injured when the wall of his house collapsed.
5) Worst hit were three villages close to Askale where a number of mud-brick homes had collapsed.
6) NTV television reported that villagers were trying to rescue a woman buried under the rubble of her house in Kucukgecit village.
7) Throughout the province, people rushed out of homes into the streets in panic and some were hospitalized with shock, the governor said. People were too frightened to return to their homes and were planning to spend the night outdoors.
8) People calling for news of loved ones jammed phone lines, Malay said.
9) A bridge was damaged and was closed to heavy vehicles. Power in some villages was cut and some government buildings suffered cracks, he said.
10) The quake was also felt in neighboring provinces.
11) Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which lies atop active fault lines. In 1999, two quakes killed about 18,000 people in northwest Turkey.


Moderate quake shakes central Turkey, no damage or injuries reported
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1) A moderate earthquake shook central Turkey on Sunday. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
2) The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 4.3 and was centered in the town of Ilgaz, in Cankiri province, the Istanbul-based Kandilli Observatory said. Cankiri is some 150 kilometers (95 miles) northeast of the capital, Ankara, where the quake was also felt.
3) Quakes are frequent in Turkey, much of which lies atop the active North Anatolian fault.
4) On Saturday evening, a magnitude 4.0 temblor rumbled in the rural Bingol province, about 700 kilometers (430 miles) east of Ankara. No damage or injuries were reported.
5) Two devastating earthquakes killed about 18,000 people in northwestern Turkey in 1999.


Earthquake shakes southeastern Turkey, causes some damage, 15 injured
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1) An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.7 shook southeastern Turkey on Saturday, damaging some 150 houses and injuring 15 people, authorities said.
2) The quake struck around 9:36 a.m. (0736GMT) and was centered in the town of Karliova in rural Bingol province _ where a magnitude 6.4 quake killed 177 people in 2003 _ the Istanbul-based Kandilli observatory said.
3) Gov. Vehbi Avuc of Bingol, 700 kilometers (430 miles) east of Ankara, said the temblor caused some damage in Karliova and in six villages in the region.
4) "There is no loss of life," Avuc told private NTV television.
5) Local Gov. Erkan Capar of Karliova said the quake slightly damaged some 120 houses in the town. He said 28 other houses were damaged in six nearby villages.
6) The government dispatched tents, blankets and other relief aid to the snow covered area, where some villages were cut off from the outside world due to heavy snowfall for days.
7) The quake caused an avalanche in the region, which blocked one of two lanes of the main highway between the city of Erzurum and the town of Cat, the Anatolia news agency reported.
8) The quake was felt in the neighboring provinces of Erzurum, Diyarbakir, Tunceli, Mus and Erzincan, Anatolia said.
9) Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which lies atop active fault lines. Two massive quakes killed some 18,000 people in 1999.


Earthquake partly collapses building, trapping woman in southeastern Turkey
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1) A moderate earthquake shook southeastern Turkey Wednesday, damaging buildings but causing no major injuries. One woman was briefly trapped under the rubble of a partially collapsed building, a local official said.
2) Rescuers managed to reach the woman and free her from the debris of the building in the village of Kayalar in Elazig province, Gov. Muammer Musmal said. She was hospitalized but was not in serious condition, Musmal said.
3) The temblor struck the town of Sivrice, sending people into the streets in panic and damaging some buildings. No other injuries were reported.
4) The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.7.
5) The quake slightly damaged a primary school as well as a post office in the town of Sivrice, Musmal said.
6) Soldiers and police were trying to reach remote mountain villages while a paramilitary helicopter flew over the area to make an assessment, CNN-Turk television reported.
7) Parents rushed to schools to pick up their children, the broadcaster reported. Authorities suspended classes in Sivrice and Maden for Wednesday after the quake.
8) Five aftershocks, the strongest with a magnitude of 3.6, followed as authorities warned residents not to enter damaged buildings.
9) The area was struck by a magnitude-5.3 quake on Feb. 9. More than two dozen people were injured in that temblor.
10) The latest quake was also felt in the neighboring provinces of Diyarbakir, Tunceli and Malatya, reports said.
11) Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, much of which lies atop the active North Anatolian fault. Two devastating earthquakes killed about 18,000 people in northwestern Turkey in 1999.
12) In 2003, an earthquake measuring 6.4 magnitude collapsed a school dormitory in southeastern Bingol province, killing 83 children. The collapse was blamed on poor construction.
13) A magnitude-6.4 quake killed 177 people in Bingol in 1995.


6.0 earthquake hits eastern Turkey, kills 57
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1) A strong, pre-dawn earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6 struck eastern Turkey on Monday, killing 57 people as it knocked down stone or mud-brick houses and minarets in at least six villages, the government said.
2) Turkey's crisis center said about 100 other people were injured in the quake, which hit at 4:32 a.m. (0232 GMT, 9 p.m. EST Sunday) in Elazig province, about 340 miles (550 kilometers) east of Ankara, the capital.
3) The earthquake, which caught many people as they slept, was centered near the village of Basyurt and followed by more than 50 aftershocks, the strongest measuring 5.5 and 5.3, the Kandilli seismology center said.
4) The worst-hit area was the village of Okcular, where some 17 people were killed and homes crumbled into piles of dirt. As relatives rushed in for news of their loved ones, authorities blocked access to Okcular so ambulances and rescue teams could maneuver on the village's narrow roads. Villagers lit fires to keep warm.
5) "The village is totally flattened," village administrator Hasan Demirdag told private NTV television.
6) Ali Riza Ferhat of Okcular said he was woken up by the jolt.
7) "I tried to get out of the door but it wouldn't open. I came out of the window and started helping my neighbors," he told NTV television. "We removed six bodies."
8) Another 13 people were killed in the village of Yukari Demirci, Gov. Muammer Erol said, adding that by noon everyone had been removed from the rubble and there was no one left buried inside the debris.
9) "Everything has been knocked down, there is not a stone in place," said Yadin Apaydin, administrator for the village of Yukari Kanatli, where he said at least three people died.
10) The quake was also felt in the neighboring provinces of Tunceli, Bingol and Diyarbakir, where residents fled to the streets in panic and stayed outdoors. Schools were closed for two days in the region. In Tunceli province, students were sent home after the quake caused a school's walls to crack, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
11) The Elazig quake follows deadly temblors in Haiti and Chile, but Bernard Doft, the seismologist for the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, said there was no direct connection between the three.
12) "These events are too far apart to be of direct influence to each other," he said.
13) Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kandilli Observatory's director, Mustafa Erdik, urged residents not to enter any damaged homes, warning that they could topple from aftershocks that Erdik said could last for days.
14) Erdogan blamed the mud-brick constructions for the deaths and said the government was instructing its housing agency to construct quake-prone homes in the area.
15) Television footage showed rescue workers and soldiers at Okcular lifting debris as villagers looked on. Rescuers dug into the dirt, finding the body of an elderly man, and quickly covered him with a sheet.
16) Two women sat on mattresses wrapped in blankets. The temblor also knocked down barns, killing farm animals.
17) Turkey's Red Crescent organization sent tents and blankets to the region. Erdogan said ambulance helicopters, prefabricated homes and mobile kitchens were also being sent.
18) Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, much of which lies on top of two main fault lines. In 1999, two powerful earthquakes struck northwestern Turkey, killing about 18,000 people.
19) In 2007, an earthquake measuring 5.7 damaged buildings in Elazig, briefly trapping a woman under debris. In 2003, an earthquake measuring 6.4 magnitude collapsed a school dormitory in the neighboring province of Bingol, killing 83 children. The collapse was blamed on poor construction.