One day after the severe earthquake in Turkey and Syria, the rescue workers are looking for survivors at high pressure. Freezing temperatures and rain make the search in the rubble difficult. The death toll rose to over 5,100, more than 3,500 of them in Turkey. Two Austrians are among the dead there.
As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Tuesday afternoon, they were found dead in Kahramanmaras province. There are currently no other missing persons.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a state of emergency in the affected areas. It is valid for three months in ten provinces in the south of the country, Erdogan said on Tuesday. At the same time, he declared the region a disaster area. The aid started internationally, and the first teams from Austria arrived in the disaster area. 70 countries have now offered their support for the search and rescue measures, said Erdogan. The government is also planning to temporarily accommodate those affected in hotels in the western tourist metropolis of Antalya.
Thousands of children under the rubble?
According to estimates by the Pacific Disaster Center, a US disaster relief organization, around 23 million people have been affected by the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. According to previous information, more than 23,500 people were injured in southern Turkey and northern Syria. According to experts, the number of deaths is likely to continue to rise. The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, fears that thousands of children may be among them. The quake in Turkey was the strongest since a similar-magnitude earthquake in 1999 that killed more than 17,000 people. “It’s a race against time,” said World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Every minute, every hour that passes diminishes the chances of finding anyone alive.”
In Hama, Syria, rescue workers search for survivors.
– © AFP
While aid has started on a large scale in Turkey, many of those affected in Syria are waiting for rescue teams. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) called for all border crossings to be opened in order to enable faster help in Syria as well.
In Syria, mosques opened their doors to take in those affected. At least 1,600 people have died in government-controlled regions and rebel-held areas in the north-west of the country, according to the government and rescue workers. Here, too, many victims are suspected to be under the rubble. The region suffered particularly badly from the Syrian civil war. According to the United Nations, destroyed roads and the harsh winter are making rescue work more difficult. The first dead were buried in Hama on Tuesday. “It’s terrible,” said Abdallah al Dahan, a resident of the city. “I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, with everything that’s happened to us.”
According to the authorities, 13.5 million people are affected in Turkey. The area in Turkey stretches over 450 kilometers from Adana in the west to Diyarbakir in the east and over 300 kilometers from Malatya in the north to Hatay in the south. Temperatures in the disaster area were around freezing.
The Turkish weather service predicted some snowfall and rain. Aftershocks and bad weather with low temperatures and rain hampered rescue work and relief supplies on Tuesday. Add to that poor internet connections and damaged roads between some of Turkey’s hardest-hit cities, home to millions of people. Oktay said that only emergency vehicles and aid transports are allowed to go to the three most affected provinces of Hatay, Kahramanmaras and Adiyaman. The same applies to traffic from the three provinces.
Turkey’s disaster agency AFAD said 13,740 search and rescue personnel had been deployed and more than 41,000 tents, 100,000 beds and 300,000 blankets had been sent to the region. 27 search and rescue teams have already been mobilized through the EU Disaster Relief Centre. As the responsible EU Commissioner Janez Lenarcic announced on Tuesday morning, this corresponds to a total of more than 1,150 rescue workers and 70 dogs.
On Monday night, the first earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 shook the border region. Another earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 followed early Monday afternoon. According to the European Mediterranean Seismological Center, another 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck central Turkey on Tuesday morning. (apa, dpa, reuters)