22 Dead, 1,000 Injured in Turkey Quake 01/25 09:31

   The death toll from a strong earthquake that rocked eastern Turkey climbed 
to 22 Saturday, with more than 1,000 people injured, officials said.

   ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- The death toll from a strong earthquake that rocked 
eastern Turkey climbed to 22 Saturday, with more than 1,000 people injured, 
officials said.

   Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, speaking at a televized news conference 
near the epicenter of the quake, said 39 people had been rescued from the 
rubble of collapsed buildings, including a woman recovered 14 hours after the 
main tremor.

   Rescue workers were continuing to search for people buried under the rubble 
of collapsed buildings in Elazig province and neighboring Malatya, Health 
Minister Fahrettin Koca said earlier.

   Emergency workers and security forces distributed tents, beds and blankets 
as overnight temperatures dropped below freezing in the affected areas. 
Mosques, schools, sports halls and student dormitories were opened for hundreds 
who left their homes after the quake.

   "The earthquake was very severe, we desperately ran out (of our home)," Emre 
Gocer told the state-run Anadolu news agency as he sheltered with his family at 
a sports hall in the town of Sivrice in Elazig. "We don't have a safe place to 
stay right now."

   The quake hit Friday at 8:55 p.m. local time (1755 GMT) at a depth of 6.7 
kilometers (around 4 miles) near Sivrice, the Disaster and Emergency Management 
Presidency, or AFAD, said. Various earthquake monitoring centers gave 
magnitudes ranging from 6.5 to 6.8.

   AFAD said it was followed by 228 aftershocks, the strongest with magnitudes 
5.4 and 5.1.

   At least five buildings in Sivrice and 25 in Malatya province were 
destroyed, said Environment and Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum. Hundreds of 
other structures were damaged and made unsafe.

   Soylu said 18 people were killed in Elazig and four in Malatya. Some 1,030 
people were hurt. Speaking at the same news conference, Koca said 34 people 
remain in intensive care.

   Television footage showed emergency workers removing two people from the 
wreckage of a collapsed building in the town of Gezin. Another person was saved 
in the city of Elazig, the provincial capital, and two more from a house in 
Doganyol, Malatya.

   A prison in Adiyaman, 110 kilometers (70 miles) southwest of the epicenter, 
was evacuated after being damaged in the quake.

   AFAD said 28 rescue teams had been working around the clock. More than 2,600 
personnel from 39 of Turkey's 81 provinces were sent to the disaster site.

   "Our biggest hope is that the death toll does not rise," Parliament Speaker 
Mustafa Sentop said.

   Communication companies announced free telephone and internet services for 
residents in the quake-hit region, while Turkish Airlines announced extra 
flights.

   Soylu said emergency work was proceeding under the threat of aftershocks.

   Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Twitter overnight that all 
measures were being taken to "ensure that the earthquake that occurred in 
Elazig and was felt in many provinces is overcome with the least amount of 
loss."

   Neighboring Greece, which is at odds with Turkey over maritime boundaries 
and gas exploitation rights, offered to send rescue crews should they be needed.

   Elazig is some 565 kilometers (350 miles) east of the Turkish capital, 
Ankara.

   Turkey sits on top of two major fault lines and earthquakes are frequent. 
Two strong earthquakes struck northwest Turkey in 1999, killing around 18,000 
people.

   A magnitude 6 earthquake killed 51 people in Elazig in 2010.


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