A dozen people were still on Tuesday evening, November 9, trapped under the rubble of a collapsed commercial building, in Malatya, in eastern Turkey, the rescuers promising to continue their search throughout the night.
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About 20 people were in the building at the time of the accident, which occurred shortly before 5:00 p.m. local time (2:00 p.m. GMT) on a busy street in Malatya, said provincial governor Aydin Barus. Thirteen people were quickly extracted from the rubble and taken to hospital, according to the government agency for natural disaster management (Afad). Two of them were hospitalized in intensive care, according to Aydin Barus.
A CCTV camera recorded the disaster: the building suddenly collapsed, creating a huge cloud of dust.
A car parked in front of the building sets off with a bang, while passers-by run as if to help people trapped under the rubble.
An eyewitness told the
Haberturk
Channel
that
he heard "
first a creak
" before the building collapsed.
“
It looked like Judgment Day.
"
More than 260 rescuers on site
More than five hours after the start of the relief operations, a dozen people were still trapped, according to Turkish media. "
Search and rescue operations are continuing,
" Turkish presidency communications officer Fahrettin Altun wrote on Twitter. More than 260 rescuers have been dispatched to the scene, according to Afad, and the collapsed building is lit a giorno to allow excavations to continue.
The governor of Malatya province asked the population and journalists in the early evening to move away from the disaster site, in order to allow rescuers to pick up any sign of life from the stack of sheets and plates. of concrete.
Malatya is a city of 450,000 inhabitants located 500 kilometers as the crow flies east of the capital, Ankara.
The building, located on a busy street in Malatya, had one floor and housed various shops, a restaurant and a café, said Enver Kiraz, chairman of the local branch of the opposition CHP party, contacted by AFP.
"
It's a very busy street, passers-by were injured
" at the time of the collapse, he said.
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The causes of the tragedy remain to be clarified but work was underway in the building, reported media and local officials.
The governor of Malatya province claimed that the collapse “
happened because of it
”.
Images broadcast live Tuesday evening showed a building reduced to a heap of concrete and metal and rescuers, equipped with a backhoe loader, trying to free trapped people in the night.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he spoke by phone with the governor of Malatya province.