Powerful aftershocks rocked Turkey's shattered north-west yesterday, killing one person and wounding 166, toppling damaged buildings and sending panic-stricken residents into the streets.
The strongest of several tremors was epicentred in Izmit, the worst-hit city in the August 17th earthquake, where a 30-year-old man was killed by falling masonry as he fled an apartment building.
Many of the wounded were hurt jumping out of windows and off balconies to avoid being trapped under rubble, hospital officials said.
The major aftershock, which the Kandilli seismic centre in Istanbul measured at 5.2 and the Strasbourg Observatory in France at 5.4 on the Richter scale, could be felt as far away as Istanbul, 100 km (63 miles) west of Izmit. It was followed by another tremor registering 4.6.
The Kandilli Observatory said the earth could continue to move for months.
The toll of the earthquake that struck with a force of 7.4 two weeks ago stood at 14,202 dead and 25,254 wounded yesterday, the government crisis centre said.
In Duzce, in Bolu province, on the eastern fringe of the earthquake zone, police held 16 developers accused of using shoddy
material responsible for the collapse of 29 buildings that killed 117 people in the town.
They were on a list of 33 builders the Duzce prosecutor's office ordered detained based on evidence collected from destroyed buildings, the Anatolia news agency reported.
The crisis centre said the quake destroyed 17,199 buildings and badly damaged 25,651 others; most were multi-storeyed residences.
The heavy loss of life and property has been largely blamed on greedy developers skimping on material, and the failure of local officials to enforce safety regulations.
The Turkish cabinet agreed yesterday to draft a series of bills concerning building regulations, while the ministry of housing said it would build 50,000 prefabricated houses by the end of November to shelter tens of thousands of people left homeless by the quake before winter sets in.
If damage assessment studies allow it, the ministry said, it will rebuild heavily damaged buildings for their owners, who will repay the cost in interest-free instalments over a 20-year period.
As aid continued to pour in from all over the world, officials were multiplying their overseas contacts.
There were strong indications that US Secretary of State, Mrs Madeleine Albright, would interrupt her busy Middle East schedule for a few hours to visit Istanbul and stricken areas on Sunday, and the Prime Minister, Mr Bulent Ecevit, will visit the United States from September 26th to October 1st, his press office said.
"If we can obtain a guarantee from the American government for a loan, our economic difficulties will be quickly overcome," Mr Ecevit said. "I hope the United States will respond favourably to our request."
Turkey has not yet issued a formal estimate of the damage caused by the earthquake, but UN sources have put it at around $10 billion.
A team from the International Monetary Fund is expected during September to assess Turkey's economic situation after the quake that struck the country's economic and industrial heartland.
Unicef has launched a programme to bring psychological assistance to children in north-west Turkey.
A Unicef statement said: "According to the Ministry of National Education, of the 2.8 million schoolchildren in the region, 500,000 were directly affected by one of the most powerful earthquakes of the 20th century." --(AFP)
The Italian foreign minister, Mr Lamberto Dini, said in an interview published in Rome yesterday that the European Union should decide in December to allow Turkey to become a formal candidate for membership following the earthquake.