Image copyright EPA Image caption The confirmed death toll rose substantially on Friday

Rescuers in the Turkish city of Istanbul have pulled a teenage boy alive from a residential building almost two days after it collapsed.

An eight-storey apartment block collapsed in the city's Kartal district on Wednesday afternoon.

Officials say the official death toll has risen to 14. Almost a dozen more people are still thought to be missing.

Rescuers have been searching through the night to find anyone still alive inside the complex's wreckage.

The 16-year-old boy was found alive on Friday, reportedly after rescuers heard him call for help from inside the rubble.

The rescue comes one day after a five-year-old girl was saved from the collapse.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Rescuers search through the rubble in the city's Kartal district

"So far 14 of our fellow citizens have been lost and another 14 people have been brought out of the rubble alive," Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told a news conference on Friday.

Several buildings surrounding site of collapse were evacuated on Thursday for security reasons, as investigations into the collapse continued.

The city's governor has said that three of the building's top floors were built illegally. A textile workshop had also been in operation inside the building without a license.

The incident has led to renewed criticism within Turkey about poorly enforced building regulations.

Following the collapse, opposition newspapers have hit out at recent laws enacted by the Turkish government that granted official status to illegal construction, BBC Monitoring reports.

That law allowed citizens to apply to legalise unlicensed properties under a "Zoning Peace" regulation.

One headline, in the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, said: "They pardoned, citizens died".</s>Rescuers work at the site of a collapsed building in Kartal district of Istanbul, Turkey, February 6, 2019.

ISTANBUL - At least two people were killed and six wounded after an eight-storey residential building collapsed in Istanbul on Wednesday (Feb 6), the governor's office said.

It was not immediately clear why the building, in the Kartal district on the Asian side of the city, had collapsed.

Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya told reporters at the site that 43 people were registered in 14 apartments at the address, but that the top three floors of the building had been built illegally.

Yerlikaya also said there was a textile workshop on the ground floor that was operating without a licence.

The chairman for Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said search and rescue operations were underway.

President Tayyip Erdogan sent the interior and environment ministers to the site, state-owned Anadolu agency reported.

Emergency teams pulled at least three people out alive as crowds surrounded the site. Roads leading to the building were blocked by vehicles and crowds.</s>An eight-story building collapsed in a southeastern neighborhood of Istanbul Wednesday killing at least one person and trapping several others under the rubble, local authorities told said.

Rescue workers were clearing wreckage in search of survivors trapped after the building in Istanbul's Kartal neighborhood south of the leafy Aydos Forest, which is located on the Asian side of Turkey's largest city.</s>ISTANBUL, Turkey — A 5-year-old girl was rescued from the rubble of the eight-story apartment building in Istanbul on Thursday, raising the number of survivors of the collapsed structure to 13. At least three people have been found dead.

The girl, Havva Tekgoz, was pulled from the debris about 18 hours after the building in the mostly residential Kartal district, on the Asian side of the city, collapsed. She was carried to a waiting ambulance on a stretcher with her neck in a brace, as one person in a crowd of onlookers chanted "God is great!"

Authorities haven't disclosed how many people remain unaccounted for. The building had 14 apartments with 43 people registered as residents.

Rescue workers carry 5-year old girl Havva Tekgoz, after she was pulled from the rubble of an eight-storey building, some 18-hours after it collapsed, in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019.

Murat Kurum, the environment and urbanization minister, told reporters at the scene that some apartments had guests at the time of the collapse, without providing details.

Kurum said the emergency teams are still "receiving sounds" suggesting signs of life from the under the rubble.

Istanbul Gov. Ali Yerlikaya said earlier that three of the injured were in serious condition.

"All our prayers, all our hearts are with them," Yerlikaya said in reference to people who may still be trapped. "We are continuing with our search and rescue efforts so that we can deliver good news (about survivors)."

Rescue workers try to remove rubble from an eight-storey building which collapsed a day earlier in Istanbul, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019.

The cause of the collapse was under investigation but officials said the top three floors had been illegally built.

Authorities evacuated seven surrounding buildings and one was under serious risk of collapse. The rescue operation was interrupted three times over fears that it might fall and harm rescuers, Yerlikaya said.

Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.</s>At least two people were killed when a seven-story building collapsed Wednesday in an eastern suburb of Istanbul, Turkey’s biggest city.

Dramatic footage of the incident shows the flattened residential building, in the city’s eastern Maltepe district, with rescue workers at the scene searching through the rubble for trapped people.

Six people have been pulled from the rubble and are being treated in hospitals, according to a statement released by the Istanbul governor’s office on Wednesday.

A team of 86 rescue workers and 26 fire trucks was at the site Wednesday evening, Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported.

The building had 14 apartments with 27-30 residents inside when it collapsed, according to Anadolu.

Fifteen residents are thought to be under the rubble, according to Zeki Dag, a local administrator of the neighborhood quoted by Anadolu.

The governor’s office statement highlighted the need for silence around the collapsed building so rescue workers will be able to hear sounds from those who may remain under the rubble.

The area around the collapsed building has been lit, with the expectation that the search and rescue efforts will continue into the night, the statement said.</s>It was not immediately clear why the building, in the Kartal district on the Asian side of the city, had collapsed.

Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya told reporters at the site that 43 people were registered in 14 apartments at the address, but that the top three floors of the building had been built illegally.

Yerlikaya also said there was a textile workshop on the ground floor that was operating without a licence.

The chairman for Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said search and rescue operations were underway. President Tayyip Erdogan sent the interior and environment ministers to the site, state-owned Anadolu agency reported.

Emergency teams pulled at least three people out alive as crowds surrounded the site. Roads leading to the building were blocked by vehicles and crowds.</s>Mr. Yerlikaya said he could not confirm the number of people thought to be caught under the debris. “There are various numbers,” he said in televised remarks, adding that he wanted confirmation before announcing anything. “The incident is very fresh right now, and there is only one thing we are focused on, which is saving lives,” he said.

Security camera footage showed the building falling into a cloud of dust, as pedestrians fled in panic. Several cars were destroyed.

The Istanbul prosecutor’s office has started an investigation into the cause of the collapse. Turkey has a history of low-quality construction, a factor that was blamed for the high death toll in the 1999 earthquake that struck near Izmit, about 55 miles southeast of Istanbul. More than 17,000 people were killed in the magnitude 7.4 earthquake, and tens of thousands of buildings were destroyed. In the aftermath, the government has pushed to modernize aging urban dwellings.



Mr. Yerlikaya said the building that collapsed on Wednesday had a permit for five stories when it was built in 1992, and that the top three floors were illegal. He said there was also an unlicensed textile workshop on the ground floor.



A natural gas explosion and aging infrastructure were blamed for a building collapse last month in the Russian city of Magnitogorsk that killed 39 people. An explosion in Paris, also last month, that left three people dead was also blamed on a gas leak.</s>A five-year-old girl has been rescued from the rubble of an eight-storey apartment building which collapsed in Istanbul.

Turkish officials said 10 people have died in the disaster in the Kartal district after the block came down around 4pm local time on Wednesday.

Another 13 people have been pulled out suffering injuries, including three who were seriously hurt.

Havva Tekgov, five, was rescued from the debris and placed on a stretcher 18 hours after the disaster.

As she was placed in an ambulance, a person in the crowd chanted "God is great" before the child was taken to hospital.

Her rescue came hours after a nine-year-old boy was pulled out alive.

Emergency teams worked around the clock in search of survivors after the collapse put the spotlight on illegal construction.

The tragedy also raised alarms over the possibility of major destruction if a large earthquake hit the city.

Istanbul governor Ali Yerlikaya said of the injured: "All our prayers, all our hearts are with them.

"We are continuing with our search and rescue efforts so that we can deliver good news (about survivors)."

At the time of the disaster, around 43 people were living in the building, which had 14 apartments.

Neighbour Cemile Dag said the collapse was a haunting reminder of the deadly earthquake that struck northwestern Turkey in 1999.

She said: "At first I thought a gas tank had exploded in our building. I looked behind me and the building, like a deck of cards, fell to the ground. There were wails, screaming."

Authorities said the top three floors had been illegally built and the cause of the collapse is still under investigation.

A majority of buildings in Istanbul are "either unlicensed, illegal or were constructed without any engineering services," according to the country's chamber of civil engineers.

Can Akin, of the Chamber of Geology Engineers, said many of the buildings were constructed without an adequate investigation of the ground conditions.

He said: "Istanbul is situated on a seismic belt.

"In the event of an earthquake in Istanbul, we could be faced with a dire picture."

It comes after Turkey's emergency management agency, AFAD, warned in August that up to 30,000 people could be killed in Istanbul if a magnitude-7.5 earthquake hit, with an estimated collapse of 44,802 buildings.</s>An eight-storey apartment building in Istanbul collapsed on Wednesday leaving at least two people dead, Turkish media reported.

Images from the incident in the Kartal district on the Asian side of Istanbul showed people escaping as the building crumbled around them.

There were reports of multiple people left wounded or trapped under the rubble. It was not immediately clear what caused the collapse but prosecutors launched an investigation, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya said 43 residents were registered as living in the block, according to Anadolu. He said local authorities had told him that three of the eight storeys had been illegally added.

Authorities immediately placed a media blackout on the incident, a practice usually reserved for terror attacks. The chairman for Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said search and rescue operations were underway. President Tayyip Erdogan sent the interior and environment ministers to the site, state-owned Anadolu agency reported.

Emergency teams pulled at least three people out alive as crowds surrounded the site. Roads leading to the building were blocked by vehicles and crowds.</s>, Istanbul, Turkey, Feb 7 – The death toll from the collapse of an Istanbul apartment block rose to 10 on Thursday as more bodies were pulled from the rubble, Turkish authorities said.

The eight-storey building, which is located in the Kartal district on the Asian side of the city, collapsed on Wednesday but the cause is not yet clear.

Rescuers had initially put the death toll at two, but Istanbul governor Ali Yerlikaya said on Thursday the figure had leapt to 10 as more bodies were pulled from the rubble, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

Another 13 people were injured, three of them seriously, he said.

As rescuers worked through the mountain of shattered concrete and twisted metal, which also crushed several nearby vehicles, they found a survivor on Thursday — a five-year-old girl.

She was taken to hospital but her condition was not immediately clear.

It was not immediately clear how many people were in the building when it collapsed, although 43 people were registered as living there in 14 separate apartments, Anadolu said.

Surveillance camera footage of the moment of collapse which was shown on Turkish television showed people fleeing in terror as the building disintegrated, leaving a huge cloud of dust.

Media reports said three of the eight floors had been illegally built in what is a relatively common practice in this metropolis of some 15 million.

Speaking to NTV news channel, several survivors said the building, which was riddled with cracks, had seemed to sway earlier in the day.

The incident was a stark reminder of the fragility of parts of Istanbul’s residential infrastructure, with several buildings collapsing in recent years.

One four-storey structure crumbled last year following violent thunderstorms and in January 2017, two people died when another building collapsed in a working class part of town.
Fourteen people were killed, and fourteen others are injured when an eight-story apartment building collapsed in Istanbul, Turkey.