ANKARA, Turkey // A three-story dormitory housing female students collapsed in central Turkey today, killing at least 17 students and injuring 27, authorities said. About half a dozen students were believed to be trapped under the rubble as frantic rescue workers removed debris with shovels, pickaxes and their bare hands. Mayor Mehmet Demirgul initially told reporters a large gas canister explosion was the likely cause of the collapse of the three-story building in the village of Balcilar. However, the state-run Anatolia news agency and other reports later said the explosion was most likely caused by a leak from a gas installation there.
"We are hearing voices. I believe those inside the rubble will be saved," Mr Demirgul said. He estimated six students were still trapped. Besides the fatalities, at least 27 students were brought out of the debris with injuries, said Hasan Kucukkendirci, who heads the local health authority. Galip Sef, an official with the local emergency services, said three of the students sustained severe burns. Mr Demirgul said an estimated six more students were waiting to be rescued.
Gov Osman Aydin said an estimated 40 to 45 girls, were staying at the dormitory. The students, aged eight to 16, were attending Quran courses during the school summer break. The Anatolia news agency quoted one student, Merve Avci, who said she had got up to wash before predawn prayers when she and some teachers heard a strange sound and went to the kitchen to investigate. There, they saw a loose gas pipe, and she returned to her room after the teachers told her to close the door. Soon after, Miss Avci told Anatolia, she smelled gas and there was an explosion. Half of the building collapsed, but she was in the section that remained intact. She said flames rose from the basement toward the top of the building.
Television footage showed local residents, some using their bare hands, trying to remove the rubble from a flattened, concrete building. One girl in pyjamas could be seen being carried to a hospital. Another could be seen being treated on the back seat of a van, before being moved onto a stretcher and taken away, groaning in pain. At least four military helicopters ferried special rescue teams to the scene. Rescuers, aided by sniffer dogs, were trying to locate survivors, Mr Kucukkendirci said.
Anatolia said helicopters flew the injured to a hospital in Konya city. In 2004, an 11-storey apartment building collapsed in Konya, killing 92 residents. The collapse was blamed on faulty refurbishment work. A year earlier, a school dormitory in Bingol, southeast Turkey, collapsed in an earthquake, killing 83 children. * AP
