Teen rescued alive from collapsed Istanbul building; 14 dead

ISTANBUL - Turkish rescue workers on Friday pulled a 16-year-old boy out alive from under the rubble of an Istanbul apartment building two days after it collapsed, a Turkish official said.

They also recovered three more bodies from the wreckage of the eight-story building, raising the death toll to 14.

The teenager was immediately hospitalized, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters at the scene. There was no information on his condition.

His rescue raised the number of people who have been pulled out alive to 14.

The building, in Istanbul's mostly-residential Kartal district on the Asian side of the city, crashed down on Wednesday. The cause of the collapse is under investigation but a top Turkish official has said the building's top three floors were added illegally.

Officials have not disclosed how many people are still unaccounted for. The building had 14 apartments with 43 registered residents.

Friends and relatives waited near the wreckage for news of their missing loved ones as emergency teams, aided by sniffer dogs, worked around the clock to reach possible survivors.

"We hope to bring out those inside safely," Soylu told reporters.

He promised punishment for anyone found responsible for the collapse.

AP