Death toll could soar in Turkey quake

Reporting from Ankara, Turkey— As rescuers in eastern Turkey combed through rubble in search of earthquake survivors early Monday, officials said the number of deaths from the 7.2 temblor had reached 239 and could go much higher.

Many buildings were destroyed or damaged. Emergency workers and residents pressed to find hundreds of people believed to be buried under debris in the cities of Van and Ercis, where a student dormitory collapsed.

In Van, some residents using their hands and shovels worked frantically under floodlights or only flashlights after reportedly hearing the voices of people calling from under mounds of broken concrete in pitch darkness and cold. Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said at least 100 people were killed in Van and 117 others died in Ercis, an eastern city close to the Iranian border.

The quake struck at 1:41 p.m. Sunday and was centered in the village of Tabanli in Van province, said Turkey's Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute. U.S. scientists recorded more than 100 aftershocks in eastern Turkey within 10 hours of the quake, including one with a magnitude of 6. The earthquake also shook buildings in neighboring Armenia and Iran, but no injuries were reported.

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