Istanbul: A five-storey apartment building that had been earmarked for destruction as an earthquake risk collapsed in Istanbul yesterday, killing two people and injuring 26, authorities said.
Rescuers called off a search by midday after ensuring that everyone was removed from the rubble. Heavy machinery was brought in to clear the debris. At least 27 people had been living in the building, Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said.
Some of the injured were customers of a coffee shop in the building's basement. The shop's owner and a passer-by realised the building was starting to crumble after midnight and alerted residents by ringing the bells, shouting and throwing pebbles at the windows and saving many lives, authorities said.
Rescuers pulled out a woman's body from the rubble, and another woman died of her injuries at a hospital, the office of Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas said.
Breathing
Rescuers had reported that a seven-year-old girl was pulled out and considered dead, but when she was taken to hospital, doctors said she was alive though barely breathing, Guler said. "She is alive and connected to a respiration machine." The state-run Anatolia news agency said she was in critical condition.
Guler said 26 people were hospitalised, including some who escaped from the coffee house.
Some people who had not managed to escape when the building began to crumble were injured and were trapped in a stairway - some for 45 minutes before being rescued, Istanbul fire department chief Ali Karahan said.
Ilhan Karadeniz, the owner of the coffee shop, said he woke up his neighbours when he noticed that the building was shaking.
"I was doing cleaning when I heard columns crumbling, I quickly rushed out and began ringing the bells," private Dogan news agency quoted Karadeniz as saying.
Idris Gunes, an injured survivor, left the building upon hearing the warnings.
"When we heard them, we rushed out," she told NTV television. "Everybody was in a panic and trying to help each other," she said.
Hours after the building collapsed in Zeytinburnu district, a moderate earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.9 shook southeastern Turkey sending people into the streets in panic and damaging some buildings, officials said.
