BREAKING NEWS: Quake Hits Turkey, Killing 20 with Injuries to Several
Pakistan Times Foreign Desk Report

ANKARA (Turkey): An earthquake of high intensity jolted eastern party of Turkey in the pre-dawn hours today, Friday.

Initial reports say that the tremor, the magnetite of which was yet to be determined caused enormous loss to lives and properties.

By now, at least 20 people were reported killed with injuries to several. Credible sources say that the number of those who sustained injuries could be not less than in three figures.

Whereas, exact number of the dead was being determined, as still more were under the debris of the collapsed buildings, mostly houses, the wounded are being transported to the nearby hospitals for immediate medical aid.

Some stories suggest that the dead and injured, by and large included women and children, who were fast asleep when the earthquake hit their dwellings.

Amid a state of fear in-sight, even the metrological experts were unable to detect the epicenter of the quake. The quake struck villages in the province of Agri overnight. Local Governor, Nurullah Cakir said he did not expect the death toll to rise.

When contacted by Pakistan’s first independent daily web newspaper, ‘Pakistan Times’ at 03:15 GMT Friday, via an online contact, the Turkish Met Office said; ‘we are trying to spot the areas, which have been hit by the tremor.’ As far epicenter, we shall let you know all details with the intensity of the earthquake on the Richter scale after an hour or so, the remarked with the line going off instantly.

Nonetheless, some sources of news dissemination suggest that with the number of initial causalities, the quake seems to be of high intensity, perceptibly not less than 6 in the Richter-scale. Yet exact information is still awaited.

Emergent measures have been set in motion and hospital (s) staff advised to report at-once to take care of the injured.

Backdrop

The realm of Turkey with Iran along has faced constant quakes in the recent past, taking a lot of precious and lovely lives of the peoples.

Turkey is crises-crossed by seismic fault lines and frequently suffers earth tremors.

Nine people were killed and dozens injured when a quake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale hit Erzurum province in eastern Turkey in March.

A huge quake in August, 1999, killed some 18,000 people in Turkey's industrialised northwest.

Story Developing

Since this story is developing, ‘Pakistan Times’ shall get back to its readers with an up-date and in-depth item, moments after follow-up details land at its Desktop.●