Turkish building-collapse deaths reach 13

Rescuers in central Turkey today searched for dozens of people feared trapped under rubble of a 10-storey apartment building …

Rescuers in central Turkey today searched for dozens of people feared trapped under rubble of a 10-storey apartment building that collapsed and killed at least 13 people.

Temperatures fell below freezing overnight as rescuers and relatives picked through the ruins of the building in the city of Konya, 155 miles south of the capital Ankara.

Turkish media said the death toll stood at 13, with 30 injured. A two-year-old girl was among the dead.  But rescuers feared a much higher toll - as many as 120 people may have been inside the building of 36 apartments.

The cause was not immediately clear. Officials blamed shoddy construction, but witnesses said they heard an explosion before the apartment block came crashing down.

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Bystanders cheered workers who pulled out two small girls alive eight hours after the apartment block buckled at around 6.30 p.m. (Irish time) yesterday.