Social media are contributing to relief efforts, following a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit the eastern Turkish city of Van on Sunday.

The death toll has risen to 265 and 1,140 people were injured as nearly 1,000 buildings collapsed in the town of Erics, the earthquake’s epicenter, according to Minister Idris Naim Sahin.

As rescue teams work against the clock to find survivors, authorities fear that these numbers could increase with around 100 people believed to be stuck under the rubble, as reported by the Associated Press news agency.

Erhan Çelik, a journalist for Turkey’s Kanal 7 TV station used Twitter to drive relief efforts. Within hours of the seismic activity, Çelik asked his 22,000 Twitter followers to offer accommodation for homeless quake victims using the #ÊvimEvindirVan hash-tag and got tremendous response.

“There are 17,000 mails in my inbox. I’ll send them all to the Istanbul governorate. I thank you all in the name of earthquake victims,” Çelik was quoted by The Guardian.

Çelik also used Twitter to convince three mobile phone companies, including Turkcell, to grant quake victims free texts and talktime to communicate with their loved ones.

The Disaster Social Network IEM provides up-to-date information on the 7.2 magnitude earthquake. IEM is monitoring social media sites for the most current and relevant information available by providing links to Twitter, Facebook, Videos, photos, and news articles to enable online users to get first-hand accounts of disaster and recovery efforts.

For instance, users can view footage of the earthquake.

http://youtu.be/g-cclZDH0XI

Based on relief efforts in Haiti and in the Horn of Africa, social media are playing a crucial role in speeding up the response and recovery time following natural and man-made disasters.