14-day-old girl found alive as Turkey quake death toll reaches 432

14-day-old girl found alive as Turkey quake death toll reaches 432

2011-10-25 22:05:29 GMT+7 (ICT)

VAN, TURKEY (BNO NEWS) -- While the death toll following Sunday's powerful earthquake in eastern Turkey reached 432 on Tuesday, a miracle brought moments of joy when a 2-week-old baby was rescued alive after nearly two days under the rubble, officials said.

Rescue workers pulled 14-day-old Azra Karaduman from a collapsed building in Van without serious injuries after she had been trapped under the rubble for some 46 hours. Soon later, rescue workers were also able to free her mother and grandmother.

The rescue came more than 10 hours after 18-year-old Mesut Ozan Yilmaz was rescued alive with only minor scratches from a collapsed tea house where he had been drinking with friends. Just two hours earlier, rescue workers also pulled a nine-year-old girl alive from another building.

While rescue efforts are continuing, the chances of finding more survivors was decreasing by the hour on Tuesday. The country's prime minister's office, meanwhile, confirmed the number of fatalities had reached at least 432. Another 1,352 people were injured.

Eastern Turkey was struck by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake at around 1.41 p.m. local time (1041 GMT) on Sunday. The epicenter of earthquake was about 16 kilometers (9 miles) north-northeast of Van, the capital of the province which carries the same name. It struck about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) deep.

Officials said that over 2,000 buildings in the city of Van and the surrounding region collapsed, trapping scores of people underneath the rubble. Officials at Turkey's Kandilli Observatory estimated on Sunday evening that the final death toll could be as high as 1,000.

More than 2,000 rescue workers, including some from neighboring Azerbaijan, immediately rushed to the region after the earthquake, which is the country's most powerful earthquake in over a decade. It remains unclear how many people are still missing, although the number is believed to be in the hundreds.

The Turkish Red Crescent has so far distributed 12,891 tents, 8 common use shelter tents, 25,229 blankets, 3,812 catalytic heaters, 2,000 units of 12 kilogram (26.4 pounds) lpg tanks, food items and equipment as victims also deal with freezing temperatures at night.

Sunday's earthquake is the deadliest in Turkey since a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Düzce province in November 1999, just months after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck northwestern Turkey, killing at least 17,118 people and injuring nearly 50,000 others.

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