Plaintive cries that guided rescuers to earthquake victims

Desperate bid to save 198 children buried in dormitory after tremor destroys village school and leaves at least 100 dead

Trapped in the dark between two bunk beds, 13-year-old Sadullah Nur gripped his friend's hand, and shouted for his parents to save them. "I kept calling 'mum', 'dad', praying they would hear me," said Sadullah, rescued after 10 hours buried in the rubble of a school dormitory that collapsed when a powerful earthquake struck south-eastern Turkey shortly before dawn yesterday, killing up to 150 people. His pyjamas grubby with dust, Sadullah said matter-of-factly to his weeping mother: "It was very dark in there, you know."

The 6.4-magnitude tremor demolished at least 10 buildings in the centre of Bingol, a city of 250,000 in the long-suffering Kurdish region. At least 80 were killed in Bingol, but all eyes were on the fate of 198 children in the village of Celtiksuyu, who were trapped when a four-storey dormitory caved in on them, folding, according to eyewitnesses, like a deck of cards.

By late yesterday the bodies of 12 children and one teacher had been recovered. Some 90 children were pulled alive from air pockets in the ruins of the school. That left about a hundred unaccounted for.

Rescue teams worked into the night under floodlights in the search for more survivors. Plaintive cries guided rescue workers as they dug through the mountain of rubble. Covered in dust, terrified, those freed from the wreckage were rushed on to waiting stretchers. Panicked relatives crowded round the rescuers every time a child was saved, in the hope that it would be theirs. Women sat on the collapsed bricks, crying and invoking the help of God.

But as the day wore on, the voices became fainter. Rescue teams called on bystanders and parents to be quiet as they inserted listening devices into the ruins. There was cheering as rescue workers pulled one dazed boy from the collapsed building .

"Who knocked the building down?" Veysel Dagdelen, aged 12, asked after being rescued.

The sight of small children being pulled from the rubble of a public school dormitory raised questions anew over the safety of buildings in a country criss-crossed by faultlines. Shoddy construction was largely to blame for the appallingly high death toll in 1999, when an earthquake in western Turkey of a 7.4 magnitude killed 17,000 people.

The low population density and scarcity of multistorey buildings in the mainly rural Bingol region meant that casualties yesterday were perhaps lower than they might have been had a similar tremor struck a more populated area.

The Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said he was determined to deal with the disaster swiftly, and pledged to investigate allegations of shoddy construction standards at the school that may have contributed to the deaths.

Yet it is common knowledge in Turkey that the strict building regulations are often bypassed by local municipalities and building contractors cutting corners. Common failings include mixing too much sand into cement, and skimping on support columns, both of which could prove fatal in an earthquake.

In 1999, the government and rescue services, including the military, also came under fire for their slow and ineffectual reaction to the disaster. Since then rescue operations have been revised, but not put to any serious test. "Intense rescue efforts are continuing. Our government is totally determined to deal swiftly with this disaster," the Prime Minister told Turkish television.

The cultural capital, Istanbul, a sprawling metropolis of 10 million people, is in line for a "Big One" sometime in the next 30 years. After the 1999 earthquake, there was talk of establishing a citywide disaster contingency plan, improving emergency services and dealing with poorly constructed buildings. But action has been slow. And yesterday's earthquake was a tragic reminder that buildings do collapse.

Some Turkish government ministers admitted that politicians had to accept some responsibility for the collapse of buildings. The Culture Minister, Erkan Mumcu, said: "We need to take measures. [Earthquakes] happen all around the world ... but no country in the world loses as many people to quakes as Turkey."

Guldal Aksit, the minister responsible for family affairs, said: "Our biggest mistake is that we have a very bad memory. We forget disasters easily."

Soldiers based near the area were the first to the scene yesterday, cordoning off the remains of destroyed buildings and supervising rescue efforts. Children's toys lay scattered among the debris. Anguished parents sifted through the debris with their hands, picking out a pink teddy bear, school notebooks covered with stickers, a pair of tiny sports shoes.

Ahmet Nuray, a farmer, said: "I have two children in there," pointing to the one floor that remained standing. Red-eyed from crying, he combed through strewn notebooks, looking for his son's name.

Bunk beds and steel lockers created pockets in which children waited for rescue workers to find them. Those rescued were comforted by helpers as they lay on blankets. The injured overflowed into the hospital garden where some wept quietly on makeshift beds and children sucked on cartons of fruit juice handed out by hospital staff.

Greece offered the immediate assistance of a rescue team; Israel said it could send medical assistance, and Germany pledged search dogs. Italy and Switzerland also offered aid, but said the Turks had indicated they did not need immediate help.

The authorities in Athens said they had a 25-member rescue team on standby, but had received no request for help from Turkey. The Greek Foreign Minister, George Papandreou, said he had pledged €300,000 (£210,000) in humanitarian assistance.

Relations between Greece and Turkey have steadily improved since both countries came to each other's aid after deadly earthquakes in the two countries in 1999.

Israel was offering humanitarian aid, help in hunting for survivors, medical assistance and other help.

The Turkish Red Crescent had already dispatched medical teams, 2,100 tents, 8,000 blankets, food, mobile kitchens, a mobile clinic, and other material to the quake zone, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.