Rescuers find more bodies in Turkish flats collapse
As hopes dimmed of finding more survivors in the debris of a collapsed apartment building in central Turkey, rescue workers pulled out two more bodies today, raising the death toll to 40.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to punish those responsible for the collapse of the building.
“This incident cannot be left without an answer, there should be a price for it and there will be,” Erdogan said after he inspected the site in the town of Konya today.
Thirty-one survivors were taken from the wreckage in the hours after the collapse on Monday. More than 60 people were still believed to be inside the building.
Grieving relatives lashed out at the contractors who built the apartment house, which was only five years old and was considered upscale in Konya.
Shoddy construction was blamed for many of the deaths in the 1999 quakes in western Turkey that killed more than 18,000 people and experts say little has been done to address the problem of poor construction in the country.
Rescue workers said most bodies were squeezed between the ceiling and the floor inside the pancaked building.
In one room, two boys were found hugging each other along with a young woman who placed her head on the chest of an elderly lady, said Murat Salim Seren, a relief worker.
“They were in fear and panic,” he said.
