KONYA - A student who is one of the survivors of a collapsed building in the central Anatolian province of Konya said on Friday that she felt the flames rising from the basement to the top floor of the building.
Merve Avci, a 13-year-old student who was rescued from a dormitory that collapsed in Konya`s Taskent town after an explosion, told reporters that flames were rising from the basement to the top floor.
A dormitory for girl students collapsed in Taskent town early on Friday, killing 13 and wounding more than 20 people.
"Before the explosion, I heard one of our teachers saying that a gas hose was not attached to its proper place in the kitchen," Avci said.
Suffering from minor injuries, Avci said that there were around 50 people, including six staff, at the three-storey dormitory.
Avci said that she then smelled gas coming from the downstairs to the upper floors, and then a strong explosion occurred.
"I was in the uncollapsed part of the building with five of my friends immediately after the explosion, and we felt flames rising from the downstairs to upper floors," she said.
Avci said that half of the building collapsed but only the part of the building they were at the time of the explosion was still standing.
Also, some municipal authorities and people living in the vicinity said that there were no large LPG canisters inside the dormitory, but there was a system operating with gas.
In the meantime, health authorities said that one student was pulled alive from the rubble and she was in stable condition.
Hasan Kucukkendirci, the health director in Konya, told AA correspondent that this was one of the three students that health teams had established a contact under the debris.
Efforts are under way to rescue other students.
(BRC-MS)
(GEN)