EBER (Turkey), Feb 5: Turkish authorities scrambled on Tuesday to provide shelter for thousands made homeless by a powerful earthquake that killed 44 people, victims of the country’s failure to control shoddy construction.

The most urgent need in the western province of Afyon, where the quake hit on Sunday, was for tents and heating after survivors spent the night outside in temperatures as low as minus 10 degrees Celsius.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit told reporters after a cabinet meeting that 44 people were killed and 318 injured in the quake, which also destroyed or badly damaged more than 600 buildings.

Sunday’s temblor, which measured 6.0 on the Richter scale and centred on the town of Bolvadin in Afyon, was the deadliest since two massive quakes in 1999 left some 20,000 people dead in the heavily-industrialized northwest.

Ecevit pledged that survivors would receive enough tents, blankets and stoves by Monday evening.

“The state has rushed to help those citizens who have suffered from the quake, employing all of its institutions and facilities in the relief efforts,” he said.

Overall, the government’s response to Sunday’s tremor was considerably better than its actions after the 1999 tremors when it took aid teams days to get to the disaster area.

Nonetheless, local officials complained of a shortage of emergency supplies this time around.

Some people were lucky enough to receive one of the thousands of tents sent by aid agencies to the disaster zone. Others crafted makeshift shelters by covering the back of a truck with a blanket or gathered around bonfires, huddled under blankets.

“We are afraid to go into our houses. There have been tremors continuing throughout the night,” said Salih Kocer, a night watchman, who built a makeshift shelter after his house in the small town of Cay suffered significant damage.—AFP