USA Today
ERCIS, Turkey — Rescuers working under floodlights pulled a 13-year-old boy alive from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building early today, five days after an earthquake leveled many buildings in eastern Turkey, killing at least 550 people.
The state-run Anatolia news agency showed a rescue team carrying Ferhat Tokay out of the debris. He was wearing a neck brace.
Sunday’s magnitude-7.2 earthquake also injured 2,300 others, according to the country’s disaster management, AFAD. Thousands of displaced people in tents were struggling in the bitter cold as rain and snow brought on more hardship.
Television footage on Thursday showed a rescue team cheering and clapping as a young man, wearing a red sweater and strapped to a stretcher, was also carried out of the debris.
The Anatolia agency said the man, Imdat Padak, 18, was dehydrated but in good condition. Padak was attending university preparation courses in Ercis when the quake struck.
Emergency officials said 187 people have been rescued from the rubble. About 2,000 buildings have been destroyed, and authorities declared an additional 3,700 buildings unfit for habitation.
Authorities were delivering more tents after acknowledging distribution problems that included aid trucks being looted even before they reached Ercis.
Israel, which has a troubled political relationship with Turkey, sent emergency housing units, blankets and clothing. Britain said it was dispatching 1,000 tents.
Some people spent a fifth night outdoors huddled under blankets in front of campfires, either waiting for news of the missing or keeping watch over damaged homes. People gathered wood to light campfires or stove-heaters; emergency workers set up kitchens and dished out soup or rice and beans.
Sermin Yildirim, eight months pregnant, was sharing a tent with a family of four who were distant relatives, along with her own twins and husband. Her family was too afraid of returning to their apartment. “It’s getting colder. My kids are coughing,” Yildirim said. “We were not able to get a tent. We are waiting to get our own.”
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