Albania's earthquake could kill 30,000 people in Istanbul

For experts, it is not a question whether a devastating earthquake will strike Turkey's largest city, but when that will happen.

And Istanbul with 15 million people, as they say, will not be ready for such a blow. August 17, 1999, an earthquake of 7.4 magnitude rocked the Marmara region for 45 seconds.

Over 18 thousand people were killed, 50,000 were injured and 300 thousand were left homeless. The Izmit earthquake and the following three months later in the town of Duzce, where about 900 people died, highlighted a problem that still seems to plague Turkey: the low construction standard and poor preparation of emergency teams.

The rules have become more severe since then, and an organism for response to natural disasters has been created. AFAD. Yet, 20 years after the Marmara earthquake, critics say they prepare for a giant blow of the same nature, are totally inappropriate.

Marco Bohnhoff, seismologist at the German Genocence Research Centre in Potsdam, says the chances that a powerful earthquake will strike under the bed of the Marmara Sea off the coast of Istanbul are very great.

There are about 1.6 million buildings in Istanbul, nearly half of which were illegally constructed and were not made necessary maintenance services.

According to the AFAD predictions, a powerful earthquake in Istanbul would take 30,000 lives and leave 2.6 million homeless. / TCH/