Landslides claim 11 lives in Turkey

Gundogdu (Turkey), August 28, 2010

Eleven people were killed when landslides caused by torrential rain razed several homes in a town in northeast Turkey, said the state-run Anatolian news agency.

The landslides wiped out parts of the town of Gundogdu, in Rize province in the eastern Black Sea region, late on Thursday, and emergency workers were continuing rescue efforts on Friday.

The death toll rose to 11 after authorities dug up three bodies inside two houses buried in mud, the agency said. Six people were hurt, two missing and hundreds left homeless.

Burak Akat, whose brother and mother-in-law died, told Anatolian his family had just sat down for the iftar dinner after a day of Ramadan.

'We heard a noise and understood right away that the house was about to collapse. Before I could say, 'Run,' the house was gone. I somehow managed to get myself outside, but my brother and mother-in-law were unable to get out,' Akat said.

Bulldozers were trying to shift mud out from beneath a four-storey building that had been knocked sideways by a landslide. Telephone communications were cut in the mountainous area.

Deadly landslides are common on Turkey's Black Sea coast, where heavy rain can displace unstable land on which residents erect structures that do not meet building codes.-Reuters

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