Desperate search for Turkey earthquake survivors

The death toll from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck eastern Turkey rose to 264 Monday, Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said, according to television reports.

A rescue worker carries a boy to an ambulance after his team found him alive in a collapsed building in Ercis REUTERS/Stringer/Turkey

Earlier, deputy prime minister Besir Atalay put the toll from Sunday’s quake at 239, with 1,300 people injured.

People living in eastern Van province issued cries for help on Twitter, giving out the addresses of collapsed buildings and the number of people trapped under the debris, as hundreds of rescuers worked round the clock.

Two children were plucked alive from the wreckage of a collapsed building in the town of Ercis but it was a rare slice of good news in an otherwise grim task for the rescue teams.

Many students were believed to be buried in Ercis, the town which felt the full brunt of the quake, after a dormitory collapsed and several student houses crumbled.

The government said that a total of 970 buildings had collapsed as of the quake and aftershocks.

One resident of Ercis recounted the moment when disaster struck and how many had been forced to sleep outside overnight in freezing temperatures.

Many of the town's residents were fleeing the town while police and soldiers kept watching around crumbled buildings to prevent looting.

While scores of multi-storey buildings had collapsed, most single-storey houses remained intact.

Turkey mobilised some 2,400 search and rescue teams from 45 cities as well as 108 ambulances, including seven air ambulances to speed to the aid of the

Victims, the emergency unit of the prime ministry said.