Rescuers continue to find people alive under the rubble of buildings a week after the strongest earthquake in Turkey, which occurred on February 6. On Monday, rescuers reported finding 7 survivors under the rubble. At the same time, according to statistics after earthquakes, the chances of finding survivors even after 72 hours after an underground strike are minimal.
Meanwhile, as the rubble is cleared, the death toll also rises. Official figures as of Monday are 31,643 dead in Turkey and 5,714 in Syria.
Martin Griffiths, responsible for delivering humanitarian aid to the site of the tragedy, Martin Griffiths inspecting the outskirts of Aleppo in northern Syria, said the current stage of the rescue operation was “nearing completion” and that aid should focus on providing shelter and food to the victims.
Meanwhile, a rescue team in southeastern Turkey has pulled two miraculous survivors from the ruins of Adiyaman: a girl named Miray and a 35-year-old woman.
The mayor of Istanbul released a video Monday showing rescuers pulling a survivor named Nayde Umay from under a pile of broken bricks and twisted steel rods in the city of Antakya. Rescuers cheered her on as she was placed in an ambulance. In Antalya, according to the Haberturk television company, another woman and 2 children were found alive, and the CNN television company reported that a woman was pulled alive from the rubble in the province of Gaziantep, in the south of the Turkey.
Rescuers in the town of Kahramanmaras said they had been in contact with an entire surviving family, who remained locked in one of the rooms of the three-storey house: with a grandmother, a mother and a child. It is possible that the fourth survivor is in the next room.
Rescuers, which include a Spanish rescue team and representatives of the Turkish police and military, said they tried to break through the wall to reach the survivors, but were prevented from doing so by a construction column. The family is under the rubble at a depth of 3 meters. “They are still alive. It is already a miracle. They have been there for seven days without water, without food and in good condition,” Burku Baldauf, leader of a group of Turkish medical volunteers, told reporters.
Meanwhile, the Turkish authorities speak of 80,000 wounded who are still hospitalized and more than a million people homeless.
Amid concerns about the infection spreading to affected areas, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said rabies and tetanus vaccines had been sent to the earthquake zone and mobile pharmacies had started operating there.
Earthquake-related losses could cost Turkey between $50 billion and $84 billion, according to various estimates.
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his government would crack down harshly on looters, amid growing public criticism of his government’s handling of the aftermath of the earthquake. Turkish authorities have started cracking down on social media accounts that post what they consider to be “provocative” posts that are seen as inciting fear and panic among the population, the country’s top police said on Monday. . It is reported that 56 people were arrested, 14 were taken into custody.
In Syria, in the areas affected by the earthquake, the situation is close to a humanitarian disaster. Areas under opposition control have been heavily displaced and refugees following a decade of civil war and before the earthquake, and it is now almost impossible to get international humanitarian aid here.
Currently, only one crossing point is open on the Turkish-Syrian border for the delivery of UN aid.
According to a UN official, humanitarian aid already delivered to the territory controlled by the Assad government cannot be transferred to the territory controlled by radical opposition groups due to a blockade by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al -Sham (HTS), which controls most of the region. .
A source from HTS in Idlib told Reuters that the group would not allow any supplies from government-controlled areas and would only allow aid from Turkey directly into their region.
Frustration with the UN is growing among aid workers in the region.
“From the first days of the disaster, we called on the UN to intervene immediately,” said Salem al-Muslet, leader of the Turkey-backed opposition coalition.
The United States has called on the Syrian government and others to immediately provide humanitarian access to all who need it.
