Quake toll rises to 116 in Turkey; rescuers finish searches
Children of families that became homeless due to the earthquake and now live in tents set up at a basketball court, paint a Turkish flag during a group activity in Izmir, Turkey, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. Rescuers in the Turkish coastal city pulled a young girl out alive from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building Tuesday, four days after a strong earthquake hit Turkey and Greece. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The death toll in last week’s Aegean Sea earthquake rose to 116 on Wednesday as rescuers in the Turkish city of Izmir finished searching buildings that collapsed in the quake.
All but two of the victims were killed in Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city. Two teenagers died on the Greek island of Samos, which lies south of the epicenter of Friday’s earthquake. The U.S. Geological Survey registered the quake’s magnitude at 7.0.
Mehmet Gulluoglu, head of Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, said search and rescue operations had been completed at 17 buildings that fell in Izmir. The rescue operation has been roaring at full tilt since Friday, pulling 107 survivors from the rubble.
Of the 1,035 people injured in the quake, 137 remained hospitalized on Wednesday, the agency added.
Following a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday evening, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged not to give up until the final person was recovered. Rescuers’ spirits were raised Tuesday when they pulled a 3-year-old girl from the wreckage of her family home 91 hours after the quake.
People who became homeless due to the earthquake go through handout clothes at a basketball court where tents for the homeless families had been set up, Izmir, Turkey, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. Rescuers in the Turkish coastal city pulled a young girl out alive from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building Tuesday, four days after a strong earthquake hit Turkey and Greece. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel) 
Members of rescue services who worked on the rubble of collapsed buildings hold a briefing, in Izmir, Turkey, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. Rescuers in the Turkish coastal city pulled a young girl out alive from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building Tuesday, four days after a strong earthquake hit Turkey and Greece. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel) 
Children of families that became homeless due to the earthquake and now live in tents set up at a basketball court, paint a Turkish flag during a group activity in Izmir, Turkey, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. Rescuers in the Turkish coastal city pulled a young girl out alive from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building Tuesday, four days after a strong earthquake hit Turkey and Greece. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel) 
A woman pauses at a basketball court where tents had been set up to accommodate people after becoming homeless due to the Oct. 30 earthquake in Izmir, Turkey, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. Rescuers in the Turkish coastal city pulled a young girl out alive from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building Tuesday, four days after a strong earthquake hit Turkey and Greece. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel) 
A member of rescue services takes a break during the search for survivors in the debris of a collapsed building destroyed in the earthquake in Izmir, Turkey, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. Rescuers in the Turkish coastal city pulled a young girl out alive from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building Tuesday, four days after a strong earthquake hit Turkey and Greece. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel) 
In this photo provided by Turkey’s IHH humanitarian aid group, Ayda Gezgin is carried by members of rescue services and medics after she was taken out of the rubble of her collapsed building, in Izmir, Turkey, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. Rescuers in the Turkish coastal city pulled Gezgin out alive from the rubble, some four days (91 hours) after a strong earthquake hit Turkey and Greece. The girl was taken into an ambulance, wrapped in a thermal blanket, amid the sounds of cheers and applause from rescue workers. (IHH via AP) 
In this photo provided by the government’s Disaster and Emergency Management Agency, a rescue worker holds Ayda Gezgin by the hand in the rubble of a collapsed apartment building in the Turkish coastal city of Izmir, Turkey, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, after they discovered the young girl alive, four days after a strong earthquake hit Turkey and Greece. The girl, Ayda Gezgin, was seen being taken into an ambulance on Tuesday, wrapped in a thermal blanket, amid the sound of cheers and applause from rescue workers. (AFAD via AP)
The tremors were felt across western Turkey, including in Istanbul, as well as in the Greek capital of Athens. Some 1,700 aftershocks followed, 45 of which were greater than 4.0 magnitude.
In Izmir, the quake reduced buildings to rubble or saw floors pancake in on themselves. Authorities have detained nine people, including contractors, for questioning over the collapse of six of the buildings.
Turkey has a mix of older buildings and new buildings make of cheap or illegal construction that do not withstand earthquakes well. Regulations have been tightened to strengthen or demolish older buildings, and urban renewal is underway in Turkish cities, but experts say it is not happening fast enough.
The country sits on top of two major fault lines and earthquakes are frequent.
