Quake rubble yields survivors day later

IZMIR, Turkey -- Three children and their mother were rescued alive from the rubble of a collapsed building in western Turkey on Saturday, some 23 hours after a powerful earthquake in the Aegean Sea killed at least 39 people and injured more than 800. One of the children died soon after being rescued, while a fourth child was still trapped.

[Gallery not loading above? Click here for more photos » arkansasonline.com/111izmir/]

The Friday afternoon quake that struck Turkey's Aegean coast and north of the Greek island of Samos registered a magnitude that Turkish authorities put at 6.6 while other seismology institutes said it measured 6.9. It toppled buildings in Izmir, Turkey's third-largest city, and triggered a small tsunami in the Seferihisar district and on the Greek island. Hundreds of aftershocks followed.

At least 37 people were killed in Izmir, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said from a crisis coordination center before visiting the wrecked sites. Among them was an elderly woman who drowned in the tsunami.

But rescue teams Saturday made contact with 38-year old Seher Perincek and her four children -- ages 3, 7 and 10-year-old twins -- inside a fallen building in Izmir and cleared a corridor to get them out.

One by one, the mother and three of her children were removed from the rubble as rescuers applauded or hugged. The survivors, including 10-year-old Elzem Perincek, were moved into ambulances on stretchers.

"I'm fine; I was rescued because only one of my feet was pinned. That foot really hurt," she said.

The health minister as well as rescue worker Ahmet Yavuz told HaberTurk television hours later that one of the children had died after being rescued. They were still trying to reach the other child, Yavuz said.

More than 5,500 rescuers from different agencies and cities worked together to reach survivors. A 65-year-old man was saved 26 hours after the quake. Rescue work continued in nine buildings.

Earlier on Saturday, search-and-rescue teams lifted teenager Inci Okan out of the rubble of a devastated eight-floor apartment building. Her dog, Fistik, or Pistachio, was also rescued, Turkish media reported.

A video showed a female rescuer trying to calm down the 16-year-old girl under the rubble as she inserted a catheter. "I'm so scared," the girl cried. "Can you hold my hand?"

Some 103 people have been rescued since the earthquake, Erdogan said. It was unclear how many more were trapped under buildings.

[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYDmCJ4nElk]

Turkey's disaster-management agency said 885 people were injured in Izmir and three other provinces. The health minister said eight people were being treated in intensive care, with three of them in critical condition.

Two teenagers were killed on Samos after being struck by a collapsing wall. At least 19 people were injured on the island.

The small tsunami that hit the Turkish coast also affected Samos, with seawater flooding streets in the main harbor town of Vathi.

The quake was felt across the eastern Greek islands and as far as Athens and in Bulgaria. In Turkey, it shook the regions of Aegean and Marmara, including Istanbul.

Information for this article was contributed by Ayse Wieting and Demetris Nellas of The Associated Press.