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Turkey tells U.N. that 35,000 under rubble
Reuters Story - August 20, 1999 05:31
GENEVA, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Turkish authorities have informed the United Nations that an estimated 35,000 people lie under the rubble left by Tuesday's devastating earthquake, a top U.N. disaster relief official said on Friday.
Sergio Piazzi, head of the European desk at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told a news briefing in Geneva: "An estimated 35,000 people are under the rubble." Asked repeatedly to clarify, he replied: "This is from the Turkish authorities. This is an estimate."
Asked whether, given that 35,000 people are estimated to be trapped under debris, the final death toll could soar above 40,000, Piazzi replied: "My answer is it is a possibility."
The official death toll from the earthquake in northwestern Turkey, which measured 7.4 on the open-ended Richter scale, stands at around 7,000 people with 30,000 wounded, according to the U.N. official.
But Piazzi said that 2,000 specialists and 120 search dogs were combing affected areas and there was a "very high chance to find many people because of the type of collapsed buildings, with space between the floors."
"Our experience with the search and rescue phase is that there is a possibility of finding people alive until next Monday or Tuesday," the official added.
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