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   Boy found alive in Turkey rubble

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Topic: Boy found alive in Turkey rubble (Read 161 times)

Rhune
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Boy found alive in Turkey rubble
« on: Feb 8^th, 2004, 5:03pm »

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Boy found alive in Turkey rubble
Sunday, February 8, 2004 Posted: 4:52 AM EST (0952 GMT)

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- Rescue teams have pulled out a 16-year-old boy alive from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building in central Turkey almost six days after the building fell.

The rescue Sunday of Muhammet Kalem, the first survivor pulled from the wreckage in five days, raised hopes that there could be others alive among the 40 or so people believed still buried under the wreckage in Konya, 260 kilometers (160 miles) south of Ankara, the capital.

"I kept hearing the voices of rescuers. I tried not to lose hope thinking they would eventually find me. I fell asleep from time to time," the Anatolia news agency quoted Kalem as saying at a local hospital.

Rescuers also found three more bodies in ruins of the 11-story building early Sunday, raising the death toll from Monday's disaster to 66.

Omer Cevikbas, the head of the team that rescued Kalem, said he saw the boy's eyes through a crack.

"We saw that a plastic pipe was moving... When I looked down from an opening, I saw his eyes. It was amazing. I can't even say how happy I am," said Cevikbas on private NTV television. "He asked what day it was and told us he was hungry and thirsty."

Kalem's father, who escaped the building shortly before it collapsed, told reporters he had already prepared a grave for the boy.

With Kalem, the number of survivors rose to 29. The boy's mother and brother were still under the rubble.

After he was pulled out alive, rescuers called for silence over loudspeakers as they listened for signs of life.

The collapse has been blamed on shoddy construction and a Turkish court on Friday charged two contractors, Vedat Kaya and Ismail Canlier, with negligence for ignoring building codes. It was not clear how many years they could face in prison if convicted. No trial date was set. The two will be held by police pending trial.

The building, which was only five years old and considered upscale in Konya, collapsed like an accordion, one floor on top of the other.

Inspectors said lack of controls during construction and poor materials were seen as initial reasons for the collapse.

Shoddy construction has been blamed for many of the deaths in the 1999 quakes in western Turkey that killed more than 18,000 people. Experts say little has been done to address the problem of poor construction in the country.

Some 140 people lived in the building's 37 apartments, officials said, but it was unclear how many were inside at the time. At least 25 residents were not in the building, but others may have had visitors at the time. There was an engagement party on the second floor of the building, attended by about 25 people.

Many families had been celebrating the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Adha with friends and relatives when the building collapsed.

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