7.8 Quake Kills at Least 150 in Western Turkey

A powerful earthquake shook western Turkey’s most populated cities early today, killing at least 150 people and injuring hundreds as it collapsed homes and buildings, Turkish state television reported.

The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.8, according to the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. Geophysicist Bill Smith said the temblor was categorized as a major earthquake, meaning a “considerable loss of life” is to be expected.

Dozens of buildings were reported to have collapsed in Izmit, the epicenter, 65 miles east of Istanbul, according to the private television station Channel 7. Dozens of fires broke out, and hundreds of Izmit’s 500,000 residents were said to have flocked to hospitals.

“We cannot assess the full extent of the damage because phone lines in most of [the affected] towns and cities are down,” said Turkish Health Minister Osman Durmus. He said emergency medical teams had been rushed to the worst-hit areas.

Reports said that some tall buildings collapsed in Istanbul and that there were people trapped in the debris begging for help.

“We saw the floor move. We all ran out of the house,” said Ramazan Aydeniz, sitting in front of his ice cream shop in Istanbul. “The kids, the elderly were all in a panic.”

Television reports from Istanbul’s low-income Bagcilar district showed hundreds of panic-stricken residents in their underwear gathered around masses of collapsed concrete that were described as having been a seven-story apartment building. Many people looked dazed, and others cried as they picked their way through debris hoping to find loved ones.

“My son, my son, where is my son?” one woman wailed outside the building.

Istanbul was without power, and tens of thousands of residents fled their homes and huddled on streets, fearing aftershocks. Istanbul Mayor Ali Mufit Gurtuna said at least 100 buildings had collapsed in the city of 10 million.

The quake, which struck at 3:02 a.m., also shook Ankara, the capital, 160 miles to the southeast, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injury there.

“I was drinking a glass of tea, waiting for customers--next thing I knew, my tea was all over my trousers,” said Cihat Haci, an Ankara taxi driver.

Telephone and electrical services were cut in several areas, and vehicles on the main highway linking Istanbul and Ankara slammed into one another during the earthquake, state television reported.

One of the hardest-hit cities was Bursa, where an oil refinery blaze was burning out of control.

Turkish Prime Minster Bulent Ecevit said the government had set up a special crisis management center to deal with the quake. Asked by reporters if he had felt the quake, Ecevit said: “No, I slept through it. Did you?”

He appealed to citizens to stay away from damaged buildings for the next 24 hours.

Much of Turkey sits on a fault zone. Ali Pinar, an official at the Istanbul-based Kandilli Observatory, said Izmit is on the fault line.

Times special correspondent Amberin Zaman reported from Ankara.