Large Quake Damages Buildings in Turkey

By Emre Peker - Oct 23, 2011 9:30 PM GMT+0700

An earthquake in Turkey’s eastern province of Van may have killed as many as 1,000 people and damaged 4,000 homes, government officials said.

Turkey’s state-run TRT television said that 28 people have been confirmed dead. Officials from the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute said that the death count may reach much higher. Communications with the province have been cut.

The magnitude 7.2-earthquake struck in the province of Van by the Iranian border at 1:41 p.m. local time was followed by more than 40 aftershocks, the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute at Bogazici University in Istanbul said on its website. It was the province’s biggest tremor since 1976 and was 5 kilometers (3 miles) below the surface, it said.

“The area where the earthquake occurred is very shallow,” Mustafa Erdik, head of the Kandilli observatory, said in televised comments. “Normally quakes happen 30 to 40 kilometers deep, this is less than 10 kilometers, therefore there will be more damage.”

More than 1,000 rescue workers are heading to Van from about 30 provinces said Mustafa Aydogdu, a spokesman for the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency.

The Turkish Red Crescent is sending 600 tents, 2,500 blankets and 100 space heaters to the emergency zone, where 25 apartments and one dormitory collapsed, Erdem Coplen, a spokesman in Ankara, said in a telephone interview.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is traveling to Van, NTV reported. Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said government agencies are coordinating a response to the earthquake and will meet in the province, which is to the east of Turkey’s largest lake and south of Mount Ararat.

To contact the reporter on this story: Emre Peker in Ankara at epeker2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net