BIG EARTHQUAKE IN TURKEY

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22905, 29 December 1939, Page 8

BIG EARTHQUAKE IN TURKEY

THOUSANDS REPORTED

KILLED

SEVEN SHOCKS IN

SUCCESSION

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.) (Received December 28, 9.30 p.m.) LONDON, December 28. Thousands of persons are reported to have been killed and towns and villages destroyed or damaged by a violent earthquake in Anatolia, Turkey. Many persons were also killed in Morocco. The seismographic registrations throughout Europe show the extent and force of the earthquake.

A message from Istanbul states that seven successive shocks between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. are reported to have destroyed or damaged Samsun, Yozgat, Or cl ix, Tokat, Sivas, Refahiye, and Amasya. More than 10,009 are dead, but the interruption of communications precludes an accurate estimate of the dead.

According to the latest reports, the town of Erzindjan, with a population of 25,000, was completely destroyed and 300 persons are reported to have perished. Turkish Deputies have offered to contribute £40,000 (Turkish) to assist the homeless, but the Prime Minister (Dr. Saydam) intimated that a Government grant would be made as soon as the extent of the damage had been ascertained.

Thousands fled to open country, where they are camping in a driving blizzard and bitter cold. The Government has supplied medical aid, with the Minister for the Interior directing operations. Recording instruments were shattered at Neuchatel (Switzerland), Faenza (Italy), and Coimbra (Portugal), where the shocks were the most violent ever recorded.

“Post office collapsing” was a dramatic unfinished telegram from an unknown post office employee at Tokat before he died at his post. He gave Istanbul the first news of the earthquake, which razed villages in an area of 4000 square miles and greatly damaged manv towns. A message from Tangier states that an earthquake there killed many persons and destroyed a store, a bank, and other buildings. A New York message- says that considerable earthquake shocks were felt in Los Angeles at 2.29 p.m. to-day, the epicentre being 40 to 50 miles distant. The damage is negligible.

Shocks were also felt in San Salvador at 5.55 a.m. to-day and on the Nicaraguan Pacific coast at, 7 a.m. yesterday.