A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey, killing at least 85 people and sparking panic as it collapsed buildings into piles of twisted steel and chunks of concrete.
Desperate survivors dug Sunday into the rubble with their bare hands, trying to rescue the trapped and injured.
Ercis, a city of 75,000 in the mountainous province of Van close to the Iranian border, was the hardest hit.
It lies on the Ercis Fault in one of Turkey’s most earthquake-prone zones.
Van, 55 miles to the south, also suffered substantial damage.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
See the original article at: KHON2 Developing Stories
