Earthquake in the Aegean Sea: the toll rises in Turkey with more than 50 dead

In Turkey, two days after the earthquake, whose magnitude was evaluated at 7 on the Richter scale, rescuers found more lifeless bodies.

AP Photo / Emrah Gurel

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The hope of finding survivors dwindled this Sunday in western Turkey two days after a powerful earthquake that left at least 58 dead, rescuers now mostly uprooting bodies from the rubble.

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The earthquake, whose magnitude was evaluated at 7 on the Richter scale by the American Institute of Geophysics and 6.6 by the Turkish authorities, occurred on Friday afternoon

, southwest of 'Izmir, Turkey's third largest city, and near the Greek island of Samos.

According to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at least 58 people died and 896 were injured in Turkey in the earthquake which also killed two teenagers in Greece.

In Bayrakli, the most affected Turkish city, rescuers continued Sunday to search the rubble of eight collapsed buildings, according to AFAD.

Several dozen of them were trying to clear one of these sites, amid a deafening din of excavators and jackhammers and under the worried eyes of relatives of the missing, according to an AFP correspondent.

A rescuer said at least ten people could still be stranded under the rubble of this building.

In the night, a man was uprooted alive from the rubble, 33 hours after the earthquake, according to media.

Two days after the earthquake, fatigue and pain spread over the faces of the inhabitants who were numerous to spend a second night outside, for fear of aftershocks.

Tents were set up to house families, and volunteers distributed soup to warm them.

An earthquake felt as far as Greece 

The earthquake was so powerful that it was felt as far as Istanbul and Athens and triggered a mini-tsunami that flooded the streets of Seferihisar, a Turkish town near the epicenter, and swept the coast of the island. Greek from Samos.

In Samos, two people were killed and extensive material damage was noted, according to the Greek authorities.

Faced with this disaster,

and Greece, two countries located in one of the most active seismic regions in the world, put

aside, saying they were ready to help each other.

The earthquake also aroused fears of a major earthquake threatening Istanbul, according to experts.

In 1999, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck northwestern Turkey, killing more than 17,000, including a thousand in Istanbul.

(With

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Earthquake in the Aegean Sea: several dead in Greece and Turkey, the two countries ready to "help each other"