Children aged three and 14 are pulled out alive from rubble after earthquake smashed Turkish city

Two girls aged three and 14 have been pulled out alive from the rubble three days after a powerful earthquake decimated the Turkish city of Izmir.  

The overall death toll from Friday’s quake reached 85 after teams found more bodies overnight amid toppled buildings in the country’s third-largest city. 

Rescue workers clapped as 14-year-old Idil Sirin was removed from the rubble, after being trapped for 58 hours. Her eight-year-old sister, Ipek, did not survive, NTV television reported.

Seven hours later, rescuers saved three-year-old Elif Perincek, whose mother, brother and two sisters had been rescued two days earlier. One of Elif’s siblings later died.

Three-year-old Elif Perincek

Three-year-old Elif Perincek

Three-year-old Elif Perincek clutches the thumb of a rescuer after she was saved after 65 hours trapped in the rubble of an apartment building in the Turkish city of Izmir

The little girl is carried to safety on a stretcher after she was rescued from the rubble early on Monday

The little girl is carried to safety on a stretcher after she was rescued from the rubble early on Monday

Three-year-old Elif holds a rescuers hand after she was saved from the rubble

Three-year-old Elif

Three-year-old Elif holds a rescuers hand after she was saved from the rubble – she became the 106th person to be rescued alive

Rescue workers carry 14-year-old Idil Sirin after she was extracted from a collapsed building early on Monday in the disaster-struck city of Izmir, Turkey

Rescue workers carry 14-year-old Idil Sirin after she was extracted from a collapsed building early on Monday in the disaster-struck city of Izmir, Turkey

Crowds surrounded rescue workers after they freed 14-year-old Idil Sirin after 58 hours trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building in Izmir

Crowds surrounded rescue workers after they freed 14-year-old Idil Sirin after 58 hours trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building in Izmir

Three-year-old girl, Elif Perincek, is pulled from the debris after 65 hours under the rubble following a magnitude 6.6 quake shook Turkey's Aegean Sea coast, in Izmir

Three-year-old girl, Elif Perincek, is pulled from the debris after 65 hours under the rubble following a magnitude 6.6 quake shook Turkey’s Aegean Sea coast, in Izmir

Idil Sirin, 14, who was under the rubble for 58 hours, is carried away after she was rescued from the collapsed Emrah building, Izmir

Idil Sirin, 14, who was under the rubble for 58 hours, is carried away after she was rescued from the collapsed Emrah building, Izmir

The child spent 65 hours in the wreckage of her apartment and became the 106th person to be rescued alive, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. 

‘A thousand thanks to you, my God. We have brought out our little one Elif from the apartment block,’ Mehmet Gulluoglu, head of Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), wrote on Twitter.

Onlookers applauded as ambulances carrying the girls rushed to hospitals immediately after their rescue.

Close to a thousand people were injured in the quake, which was centred in the Aegean Sea, north-east of the Greek island of Samos. It killed two teenagers on Samos and injured at least 19 other people on the island. 

There was some debate over the magnitude of the earthquake. The US Geological Survey rated it 7.0, while Istanbul’s Kandilli Institute put it at 6.9 and Turkey’s emergency management agency said it measured 6.6.

The quake triggered a small tsunami that hit Samos and the Seferihisar district of Izmir, drowning one elderly woman.

The tremors were felt across western Turkey, including in Istanbul as well as in the Greek capital of Athens. Hundreds of aftershocks followed.

Members of rescue services search in the debris of a collapsed building for survivors in Izmir, Turkey

Members of rescue services search in the debris of a collapsed building for survivors in Izmir, Turkey

Members of rescue services work on the debris of a collapsed building in Izmir, Turkey, Sunday

Members of rescue services work on the debris of a collapsed building in Izmir, Turkey, Sunday

A member of rescue services with a dog, walks past a destroyed building in Izmir, Turkey

A member of rescue services with a dog, walks past a destroyed building in Izmir, Turkey

Rescue teams continue ploughing through concrete blocs and debris of collapsed buildings in Turkey's third largest city on Sunday

Rescue teams continue ploughing through concrete blocs and debris of collapsed buildings in Turkey’s third largest city on Sunday

Turkey has a mix of older buildings and cheap or illegal construction, which can lead to serious damage and deaths when earthquakes hit.

Regulations have been tightened in light of earthquakes to strengthen or demolish buildings and urban renewal is under way in Turkish cities, but it is not happening fast enough. 

More than 3,500 tents and 13,000 beds have been supplied to provide temporary shelter, according to AFAD, which said 962 people had been injured in Friday’s earthquake.

Rescue teams continue ploughing through concrete blocs and debris of collapsed buildings in Turkey's third largest city in search of survivors of a powerful earthquake

Rescue teams continue ploughing through concrete blocs and debris of collapsed buildings in Turkey’s third largest city in search of survivors of a powerful earthquake

A man sleeps outdoors on Sunday after an eathquake destroyed homes in Izmir, Turkey

A man sleeps outdoors on Sunday after an eathquake destroyed homes in Izmir, Turkey

More than 3,500 tents and 13,000 beds have been supplied to provide temporary shelter, according to AFAD, which said 962 people had been injured in Friday's earthquake

More than 3,500 tents and 13,000 beds have been supplied to provide temporary shelter, according to AFAD, which said 962 people had been injured in Friday’s earthquake 

More than 740 victims have so far been discharged from hospitals, AFAD said.

It was the deadliest earthquake in Turkey since one in the eastern city of Van in 2011 which killed more than 500 people. A quake in January this year killed 41 people in the eastern province of Elazig.

Turkey sits on top of fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. In 1999, two powerful quakes killed some 18,000 people in north-western Turkey. Earthquakes are frequent in Greece as well.

source: dailymail.co.uk