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CNN Live Today
Rescuers in Turkey Scrambling to Save Children
Aired May 01, 2003 - 10:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Night is falling now in Turkey, and rescuers there are scrambling to save perhaps 100 children from the rubble of a dormitory. A four-story boarding school fell in a 6.4 magnitude. The confirmed death toll is at least 85. Officials expect that number to go much higher. Power has been cut to the hardest hit town, Bingol. It's a rather poor village in southern Turkey.
Reporter Gokhan Eren joins us once again from Bingol, on the phone, to give us another update on what's happened there now.
Can you tell us, Gokhan, if they have been able to bring any other bodies out or any other live students or any one else out since last we spoke?
GOKHAN EREN, JOURNALIST: Leon, I'm sorry to say that there are no more live students that have been brought out, rescued out of the school complex, the school building. But Captain Mustafa Baystahl (ph) of the Turkish armed forces, who is the high-ranking commander here at the site at the school, has given us the latest number as 12 bodies recovered of students, and as I'm told before, one of a teacher. So the amount of -- the number of bodies recovered from this school so far is 13 at the moment.
Ever since our last report, the number has not changed on the living people that have been brought out of this rubble, and the number of dead is 106.
This is the latest situation here. The family members are still crying on the site. They are being permitted by soldiers from getting close to the school. Announcements are being made asking the parents to leave the premises in order for the rescue work to continue.
More and more body bags are being brought up. Meanwhile, ambulances are leaving with the bodies, and officials here are trying to keep it a secret on whether the ambulance is leaving with the living students or with the body of a student, because they don't -- they want to try to avoid any further dilemmas here at the school which might hinder the rescue work.
One thing that I have to add is on the number of the living students that have been brought out of here alive, this number is very critical, because the numbers that officials are getting are always changing, but the number of dead seems to be more convincing at the moment -- Leon.
HARRIS: We understand. Gokhan Eren, thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 1, 2003 - 10:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Night is falling now in Turkey, and rescuers there are scrambling to save perhaps 100 children from the rubble of a dormitory. A four-story boarding school fell in a 6.4 magnitude. The confirmed death toll is at least 85. Officials expect that number to go much higher. Power has been cut to the hardest hit town, Bingol. It's a rather poor village in southern Turkey.
Reporter Gokhan Eren joins us once again from Bingol, on the phone, to give us another update on what's happened there now.
Can you tell us, Gokhan, if they have been able to bring any other bodies out or any other live students or any one else out since last we spoke?
GOKHAN EREN, JOURNALIST: Leon, I'm sorry to say that there are no more live students that have been brought out, rescued out of the school complex, the school building. But Captain Mustafa Baystahl (ph) of the Turkish armed forces, who is the high-ranking commander here at the site at the school, has given us the latest number as 12 bodies recovered of students, and as I'm told before, one of a teacher. So the amount of -- the number of bodies recovered from this school so far is 13 at the moment.
Ever since our last report, the number has not changed on the living people that have been brought out of this rubble, and the number of dead is 106.
This is the latest situation here. The family members are still crying on the site. They are being permitted by soldiers from getting close to the school. Announcements are being made asking the parents to leave the premises in order for the rescue work to continue.
More and more body bags are being brought up. Meanwhile, ambulances are leaving with the bodies, and officials here are trying to keep it a secret on whether the ambulance is leaving with the living students or with the body of a student, because they don't -- they want to try to avoid any further dilemmas here at the school which might hinder the rescue work.
One thing that I have to add is on the number of the living students that have been brought out of here alive, this number is very critical, because the numbers that officials are getting are always changing, but the number of dead seems to be more convincing at the moment -- Leon.
HARRIS: We understand. Gokhan Eren, thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
