Okcular, Turkey: The Turkish government acknowledges that homes in eastern areas prone to earthquakes are not resilient to jolts like the magnitude 6 temblor that toppled houses and killed 51 people this week.
Hundreds are now homeless and sheltering in tents since Monday's pre-dawn quake, which exposed Turkey's lag in constructing sturdy homes near the country's two major fault lines.
Health Minister Recep Akdag said Tuesday that the mud-brick homes typical of Turkey's impoverished villages "topple down in the slightest of jolts, and those caught beneath die from lack of air."
The Kandilli seismology center says there have been more than 100 aftershocks since Monday's quake near the remote village of Basyurt in Elazig province.
Bureau Report
First Published: Tuesday, March 09, 2010, 16:14