Turkish mosque collapsed, 1 killed

PanARMENIAN.Net - The dome of a mosque under construction collapsed on Saturday, December 17, killing one worker and injuring nine others, who were pulled from the rubble by rescuers, an official said.

State-run TRT television showed images of rescuers, some carrying a bright orange stretcher, scrambling to rescue one trapped worker amid a pile of rubble and iron rods.

The images were a mini-replay of a series of televised rescues in October after a pair of powerful earthquakes buried hundreds of people in eastern Turkey.

The cause of Dec. 17 accident was under investigation.

Tough safety codes were approved a decade ago after earthquakes in western Turkey killed 18,000 people and prompted an outcry over the poor quality of construction, but enforcement has remained lax.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan charged that shoddy construction contributed to the high casualty toll of October's earthquakes and said Turkey had not learned lessons from past disasters, AP reported.