Impossible to prepare for disasters this big, Turkey's president says
Rescue workers called for silence at a fallen apartment building in central Iskenderun, on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, today after hearing signs of life beneath the rubble.
Families desperately waiting for news of missing loved ones held their breath - before the rescue workers called for an ambulance, confirming someone was alive.
Cheers broke out and many cried. They told us it was the building’s first confirmed survivor.
The rescue workers and volunteers then formed a chain, carrying a woman over the rubble.
Neighbours told us the survivor was a single mother in her 50s who lived alone in the building.
Her son was waiting for her as she was carried into the ambulance.
People still waiting for news of their own loved ones said it gave them hope for a miracle of their own.
Anger at building standards grows in Turkey
Anger is growing in Turkey that poor enforcement of building regulations contributed to the collapse of many buildings in Monday's earthquakes, leading to the soaring death toll.
Construction regulations were tightened following previous disasters in Turkey, most recently in 2018.
Stricter safety standards were also brought in following the 1999 earthquake around the city of Izmit, in the north-west of the country, in which 17,000 people died.
But periodic "construction amnesties", which offer legal exemption to those structures built without the required safety certificates for a stated fee, have contributed to the recent catastrophe, experts suggest.
Comments