Hopes fade for Turkey quake survivors

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Almost a week after a 7.2 magnitude quake hit Ercis in Turkey, authorities say the death toll has risen to 582.NEW: 231 people have been rescued alive, Turkey's deputy prime minister saysThe death toll rises to 582 after last Sunday's quake, a crisis center saysMost of the casualties were in the town of Ercis in eastern Van provinceThe United States and China are sending aid to the survivors

Istanbul (CNN) -- The number killed in a huge earthquake that rocked eastern Turkey last weekend climbed to 582 Saturday, Turkish state-run Anatolia news agency said, as the government drew up a new law that would move homes from high-risk areas.

The tally of those injured in last Sunday's 7.2-magnitude quake rose to 4,152, according to a crisis center in the eastern province of Van, Anatolia reported.

The center said 455 of the deaths had occurred in the town of Ercis, where rescue efforts have continued all week.

Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said Saturday 231 people have been found alive in the wreckage, Anatolia reported, despite temperatures dropping close to freezing at night.

Atalay said 84 buildings had collapsed in Ercis and six in the city of Van. Search efforts will continue at four apartment buildings in Ercis until the end of the day, the agency quoted him as saying.

Two teenagers were pulled alive out of the rubble of apartment buildings late Thursday and early Friday, more than 100 hours after the quake.

Relief crews have distributed 40,721 tents -- including 6,088 from abroad -- and 159,360 blankets to survivors, authorities said. A total of 1,309 aftershock quakes have occurred since Sunday's main temblor, officials said.

Turkey's government plans to present a new law to parliament by the end of December which would see the evacuation of settlements in areas at high risk of natural disaster, Anatolia reported.

Laws governing construction and property management would also be revised under the so-called Urban Transformation Law, the agency said.

The United States and China are the latest countries to offer help to Turkey's quake survivors.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the U.S. European Command to provide humanitarian relief supplies including blankets, cots, sleeping bags and hygiene kits, the Pentagon said Friday.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government is to send $1 million to Turkey and the Red Cross Society of China has donated $50,000, Xinhua quoted a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman as saying.

CNN's Sarah Jones and Laura Smith-Spark contributed to this report.

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One week on, Turkey quake toll rises

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Rescue workers carry the body of a victim in Ercis, Turkey, on Thursday, after an earthquake shook the area.More than 4,100 people were injured in the quake last SundayThe town of Ercis was hard-hitMore than 230 people have been pulled alive from the rubble

Istanbul (CNN) -- The death toll from an earthquake that struck eastern Turkey a week ago was at 601 as of Sunday, the Turkish state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

More than 4,100 people were injured in last Sunday's 7.2-magnitude quake, which struck Turkey's Van province.

At least 455 people died in the town of Ercis, where rescue efforts have been under way throughout the week, a crisis center in Van province reported Saturday.

However, some 231 people have been found alive in the rubble, despite temperatures nearing the freezing mark at night, Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said Saturday, according to Anatolia. Two teenagers were pulled out of the rubble alive late Thursday and early Friday, more than 100 hours after the quake.

Eighty-four buildings have collapsed in Ercis and six more in the city of Van, Atalay said.

Relief crews have distributed 40,721 tents -- including 6,088 from abroad -- and 159,360 blankets to survivors, authorities said. A total of 1,309 aftershock quakes have occurred since Sunday's main temblor, officials said.

Turkey's government plans to present a new law to parliament by the end of December which would see the evacuation of settlements in areas at high risk of natural disaster, Anatolia reported.

Laws governing construction and property management would also be revised under the so-called Urban Transformation Law, the agency said.

The United States and China are the latest countries to offer help to Turkey's quake survivors.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the U.S. European Command to provide humanitarian relief supplies including blankets, cots, sleeping bags and hygiene kits, the Pentagon said Friday.

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Death toll passes 430 in Turkey quake

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Baby rescued from earthquake rubbleNEW: The death toll jumps to 459 NEW: Israel says it will send an assistance flight on WednesdayTwo-week-old Azra Karaduman, her mother, and her paternal grandmother were rescued 4 corpses are pulled from the rubble of the same building Find out how you can help those devastated by the earthquake in Turkey; visit our Impact Your World page at CNN.com/IMPACT.

Ercis, Turkey (CNN) -- In a dramatic rescue that gave hope to those praying for the survival of their loved ones, rescuers in eastern Turkey pulled a baby, her mother and her grandmother alive from the rubble Tuesday, two days after a devastating earthquake.

Dramatic video showed tiny Azra Karaduman being carried by rescuers to a vehicle that would take her to the hospital. They were holding a mask over her mouth to help give her oxygen.

Later, rescuers pulled the girl's mother and paternal grandmother alive from the rubble as well.

Officials said the 2-week-old girl's father remained trapped somewhere under the debris of the multiple-story building.

Over several hours, four corpses were pulled from the rubble of the same building, officials said. At least one of them was male. Officials did not say immediately whether one of the bodies was the baby's father.

The official death toll jumped to 459 Tuesday, with another 1,352 people injured, the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Relief Agency said.

Teams of rescuers throughout the poor region struck by Sunday's 7.2-magnitude quake are searching for survivors around the clock.

Reaching Azra -- who, according to her maternal grandmother, was born three weeks prematurely -- was particularly difficult, rescuers told CNN.

The baby's mother managed to make contact with rescuers and get the baby to them through a narrow passage, a rescuer said.

Officials had to find a rescuer thin enough to fit into the crevice to get Azra. The rescuer told CNN it was the first time he had ever pulled someone alive from earthquake rubble in 12 years of doing such work.

While rescuers worked to get to the mother and grandmother, they managed to supply the two women with oxygen, officials said.

"It was hard to rescue them" because of the tight space, said rescue worker Tansu Bayram. "It was so difficult."

Some 2,262 buildings in the region lie in ruins.

The military is assisting rescue workers, who are using heavy machinery, shovels, and their bare hands.

Numerous aftershocks -- the largest a magnitude 6.0 -- have rattled the area, which is one of the poorest in Turkey. One on Tuesday measured 5.7, and was 7 km (4.3 miles) deep.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said 55 buildings collapsed in Ercis on the north shore of Lake Van. The Turkish Red Crescent said about 25 apartment buildings and a student dormitory also collapsed in the town.

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A health services building also collapsed, along with part of a hospital, CNN sister network CNN Turk reported. The injured were being treated in the hospital's garden.

"People are really scared," CNN Turk reporter Nevsin Mengu said from Van on Monday. "The survivors are now trying to survive the cold weather."

Rescuers and survivors contended with near-freezing temperatures. Some people collected wood from collapsed buildings to burn for warmth, Mengu said.

She said many residents are not returning to their houses, opting instead to sleep on rooftops or in the streets. It was not clear whether their homes were uninhabitable or if they were just too frightened.

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The Red Crescent called for rescue workers, machinery and drinking water. A crisis center was set up by the country's Health Ministry in the Turkish capital of Ankara.

By Monday, more than 2,300 emergency personnel were in the region, Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said. Tents and rescue teams have come from as far away as Iran and Azerbaijan.

Israel's Ministry of Defense said that on Wednesday, a plane with several portable housing structures will fly to eastern Turkey, the first of a number of flights accommodating a Turkish request for assistance. It will be a civilian plane rented by the Israeli government, the ministry said.

"The United Nations is in contact with the relevant authorities and stands ready to offer any assistance if requested," Martin Nesirky, spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said Monday.

Turkey is "no stranger to having these seismic events," but Sunday's quake is considered major, CNN Meteorologist Reynolds Wolf said.

A magnitude-7.6 earthquake in Izmit, Turkey, killed more than 17,000 people in 1999, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. A magnitude-7.2 tremor in Duzce the same year killed 894 people, the agency reported.

Sunday's quake struck at 1:41 p.m. local time and was centered about 12 miles from Van, the agency said.

CNN's Talia Kayali and Hande Atay contributed to this report.

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Witness 'thought quake was a bomb'

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Rescue teams attempt to dig through the rubble of a collapsed building in Ercis looking for survivors.At least 217 people are reported dead; 350 are injured after the quakeThe USGS reports the quake had a magnitude of 7.2Many people were trapped after buildings collapsedAre you there? Send your images, video to iReport.

Ercis, Turkey (CNN) -- Witnesses to Turkey's most powerful earthquake in more than a decade described the devastation Monday as rescue teams picked through the rubble desperately searching for survivors.

The towns of Van and Ercis appeared to bear the brunt of the violent tremor Sunday, when hundreds of people were killed or injured as buildings collapsed around them.

In Ercis, Orhan Demir stood watching rescue workers pick away at the rubble of a six-storey apartment building. His brother and his brother's wife were both inside when the 7.2-magnitude quake hit.

Death toll rises after massive earthquake

Neighbors fear there are as many as 60 people trapped inside. Demir said he thought the quake was a bomb it had been so loud.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayep Erdogan visited this particular site late on Sunday. Demir said he'd told him the municipality shouldn't have given out building permits for multi-storey buildings like this in an earthquake zone.

A civil engineer also working at the site told CNN he imagined buildings like these might have been constructed before regulations were tightened in the aftermath of the Izmit earthquake in 1999.

More than 17,000 people lost their lives and at least 200,000 were left homeless when the 7.6-magnitude quake shook the region in northwestern Turkey. Most victims had been buried as buildings were flattened.

Find out how to help quake victims at CNN.com/IMPACT

Meanwhile, another Ercis resident, Ramazan Palas, said he felt at least 18 aftershocks.

But he said the devastation "could have been even worse if it hadn't been a Sunday, with people out, schools out."

Filiz Isler was sitting on her balcony in Van when the quake struck.

She said she'd thought it was thunder but then "when I tried to move it was as though someone had a plastic sheet beneath my feet and was pulling it from under me."

The buildings were collapsing "like a house of cards," she added.

She was four years old when another major earthquake struck Van in 1976, though she doesn't remember there being the same damage, perhaps because the buildings were not multi-storey back then.

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