Rescuers continued their race to pull more people alive from the rubble, with the window closing to find trapped survivors
Ankara: Three days after the 7.8 temblor and series of aftershocks hit Turkey and Syria, killing more than 19,300, thousands who lost their homes huddled around campfires and clamoured for food and water in the bitter cold,.
Rescuers continued their race to pull more people alive from the rubble, with the window closing to find trapped survivors.
While accounts of miraculous rescues briefly buoyed spirits, the grim reality of the hardship facing tens of thousands who survived the disaster is predominant.
In the Turkish city of Antakya, dozens of people crowded around a truck distributing warm clothes for children and other supplies.
While many have found shelter in tents, stadiums and other temporary accommodation, many others continue to spend the nights out in the open.
People are warming up around campfires, but it’s not enough. Meanwhile, the first UN aid trucks to enter rebel-held northwest Syria from Turkey since the quake struck, arrived on Thursday (Feb 9) morning.
The intense cold and damage to roads and airports from the quake have hampered the relief response throughout a region already contending with the repercussions of more than a decade of civil war in Syria.
That conflict displaced millions of people within Syria and left many reliant on humanitarian aid, while also sending millions more over the border into Turkey to seek refuge.
Some in Turkey have complained the response was too slow.
Any perception that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has mismanaged the crisis could hurt him at a time when he faces a tough battle for reelection in May.
In the Turkish town of Elbistan, rescuers formed human chains as they dug through collapsed buildings, urging quiet in the hopes of hearing stifled pleas for help. But more and more often, they pulled out dead bodies from under the rubble.
The family of Havva Havam still hoped to see three of its members alive again, sitting by the fire opposite their former home, now a pile of debris.
In Antakya to the south, rescuers pulled out a young girl, Hazal Guner, from the ruins of a building and also rescued her father, Soner Guner, news agency IHA reported.
As they prepared to load the man into an ambulance, rescue crews told him that his daughter was alive. “I love you all,” he faintly whispered.
Elsewhere in the city, Serap Arslan said machinery only started to move some of the heavy concrete covering trapped people on Wednesday, Feb 8.
The intense cold and damage to roads and airports from the quake have hampered the relief response throughout a region already contending with the repercussions of more than a decade of civil war in Syria.
“We tried to clear the debris on our own, but unfortunately our efforts have been insufficient,” the 45-year-old said.
Turkey’s disaster management agency said more than 110,000 rescue personnel were now taking part in the effort and more than 5,500 vehicles, including tractors, cranes, bulldozers and excavators had been shipped.
In the Syrian government-held city of Aleppo, rescue workers pulled seven people out alive and 44 bodies on Thursday from a collapsed building in the city centre, state TV reported.
“We are racing against time. Time is running out,” said the Syrian paramedic group in the rebel-held northwest known as White Helmets.
Aid efforts in Syria have been hampered by the ongoing war and the isolation of the rebel-held region along the border, which is surrounded by Russia-backed government forces. Syria itself is an international pariah under Western sanctions linked to the war.
Erdogan announced Thursday that the death toll had risen to more than 16,100 in his country, with more than 64,000 injured.
On the Syrian side, which includes in government-held and rebel-held areas, of the border, more than 3,100 have been reported dead and more than 5,000 injured.
The earthquake’s toll is the highest worldwide since a 2011 earthquake off Japan triggered a tsunami, killing nearly 20,000 people. AP
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