TURKEY EARTHQUAKE PROMPTS HOMES RETHINK
Baku, March 10 (AZERTAC).Turkey`s prime minister says he has ordered architectural changes in an eastern region where 51 people were killed in an earthquake. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed the high level of casualties on mud-brick buildings used in the area.
Survivors have been huddling around fires in near-freezing temperatures, as rescue teams hand out food. The 6.0-magnitude quake struck before dawn on Monday, toppling buildings in five villages. The destruction was said to be worst in the Kurdish village of Okcular, where at least 15 people were killed.
Residents of the affected villages have been warned not to return to damaged homes as the area was shaken by dozens of aftershocks, the strongest of which measured 5.5. The government disaster management centre and Turkish Red Crescent have set up tents to help survivors cope with the harsh winter weather, and are also distributing food and blankets. Turkey, which is crossed by the Northern and Eastern Anatolian fault lines, suffers from frequent earthquakes. Many of them are minor, though a 7.4-magnitude tremor which hit the western city of Izmit in August 1999 killed more than 17,000 people.
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