Hundreds of quake victims dead under the sea...08/26/99

Hundreds more victims of the Turkish earthquake are feared to be buried under the sea, their homes engulfed by a huge tidal wave created by the tremors.

Divers searching the now submerged seafront at Golcuk said the town's death toll could be as high as 15,000.

Dozens of buildings are still flooded up to the second or third story because the vast wall of water that struck during Tuesday's earthquake has failed to recede, creating a deep lagoon in what was once a bustling residential and commercial centre.

Lampposts poke out of the water and the street scenes below the surface are, as they were when the disaster hit town. Cars, some with people still inside, are parked on what was once the promenade, a popular spot for visitors to this stretch of the Marmara coast.

Some families have hired divers to search for relatives in the submerged buildings because the authorities say they do not have the resources to recover them. It is not known precisely how many died when the wave struck, but local residents say it could be several hundred.

As efforts continued all over western Turkey to clear wrecked buildings, more bodies were recovered and the official death toll rose to 14,360. The final figure is expected to pass 40,000 and the government has asked the United Nations for 45,000 body bags.

With an estimated 200,000 survivors now refugees, Turkish officials broadcast appeals for everything from tents to bulldozers to help begin rebuilding shattered lives.

Foreign rescue teams have started leaving as searches for survivors' wound down, a week after the 7.4 quake struck.

Although a four-year-old boy given up for dead by his family was rescued yesterday, officials said the emergency response work is shifting to identifying and helping the 43,000 injured and other survivors.

That task is now complicated by heavy rains turning dusty wastelands into muddy swamps and increasing fears of disease from mosquitoes and flies attracted by the foul-smelling wreckage. Thousands of decaying bodies are still buried in the rubble.

Drenched survivors battled in vain to keep their simple cardboard-and-blanket huts from collapsing into soggy piles. "No one is helping us," cried a 70-year-old woman walking barefoot through the muddy streets of Adapazari, 60 miles from Istanbul. "All I have is my blanket."

A centre used to house 3,000 refugees from the Kosovo war has been reopened but thousands are still sleeping in the open.

The worst affected areas have become ghost towns and there have been isolated incidents of looting. One report said soldiers shot and wounded men who cut off the hand of a victim to steal her rings.

Criticism of the way the government handled the crisis continues and Prime

Minister Bulent Ecevit is under pressure to do something about his maverick health minister, Osman Durmus, who says Turkey doesn't need foreign help. He spurned offers of aid from old enemy Armenia and deplored the fact that Turkey accepted aid from Greece.

Britain is today poised to launch a multi-million pound relief effort to prevent mass outbreaks of disease.

Meanwhile, British rescuers have told of their heartbreak for victims of the disaster.

An 11-strong team from the Gloucester-based charity Rapid UK flew back to Britain last night after spending six days, digging through the ruins. The volunteers spoke of their heartbreak after failing to save a couple and their two children buried underneath a collapsed five-story block after hearing sounds of life. After hearing no noises for seven hours, and with the state of the building putting rescuers' lives in peril, the team was forced to abandon the bid.

Simon Gillam, director of Rapid UK, said they were "devastated" at not to be able to save the family. Mr Gillam, from Aldershot, said: "It was heartbreaking. The children's grandfather was watching the whole time, hoping for the best."