Rescuers pulled a baby and a girl alive from the rubble before dawn on Sunday, nearly a week after a massive earthquake that killed 28,000 people in Turkey and Syria and could “doubling” casualties, according to the UN. A video clip released by Anadolu Agency shows the Turkish news agency on Twitter showing a 13-year-old girl being pulled from rubble in Gaziantep, Turkey, after a 72-hour deadline passed, which is critical to rescue operations.
In the province of Hatay (south), Hamza, a seven-month-old baby, was also found alive under a blackboard where he had spent more than 140 hours, the Ikhlas news agency reported on Saturday evening.
Rescuers pulled Menexi Tabak, 70, from rubble in Kahramanmarash province as they shouted “God is great,” according to a video broadcast by public television channel TRT Haber. When she came into the light, the woman asked, “Is the world here?”
And Anatolia News confirmed that rescuers pulled Özlem Yılmaz (35) and her daughter Khadija (6) alive from the rubble of a building 117 hours after the earthquake in Adi Yaman province in the country’s southeast.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed at least 28,191 people, 24,617 in Turkey and 3,574 in Syria, according to the latest official reports.
“Revenue will double.”
UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths warned that the death toll from a major earthquake in Turkey and Syria would “double or more”.
Speaking to Sky News, Griffiths said: “I think it’s hard to accurately estimate (losses) because we need to look under the wreckage, but I’m sure it will double or more.” “In fact, we have not yet started counting the dead,” he added.
On Saturday, Griffiths said in a video posted to his Twitter account: “Soon, the people in charge of search and relief operations will give way to humanitarian agencies, whose work will require the care of an exceptional number of casualties in the coming months. .”
In Gaziantep, where about 2,000 people have died, displaced people queue in sub-zero temperatures to get hot meals as part of a solidarity campaign launched by the city’s restaurants. Restaurant “Burkhan Chadash” distributed about four thousand free meals to the survivors.
“Our employees are in a very difficult situation. Their families have been victimized and their homes destroyed,” Chadash said. The family of Berhan Chadash himself has been sleeping in cars since Monday. But the wave of solidarity is stronger than all circumstances. “We want to help,” Chadash explained.
The State Disaster Management Agency confirmed the participation of about 32,000 people in search and rescue operations, as well as more than 8,000 foreign paramedics. More than 25,000 Turkish soldiers are also stationed in the affected areas, according to Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar.
On Saturday, for the first time in 35 years, a crossing between Armenia and Turkey was opened to allow the passage of humanitarian aid after the earthquake in the region, the official Turkish Anadolu agency reported on Saturday.
Contractors arrested
On Saturday, the Austrian army suspended rescue operations for several hours due to the “security situation” on the ground. A similar decision was made by the German Federal Relief Agency, as well as a German non-governmental organization specializing in helping victims of natural disasters.
Two Austrian aid workers, with the help of two trained dogs, were able to resume the search in the afternoon “under the protection of the Turkish army,” according to an army spokesman in Vienna. The collapse of buildings, which showed that they were built of poor quality, causes outrage in the country.
On Saturday, about 12 contractors were arrested in Turkey after thousands of buildings collapsed in the country’s southeast, with a contractor in Gaziantep province and 11 in Sanlıurfa province among those arrested.
And the World Health Organization said on Saturday that earthquake casualties in Turkey and Syria reached about 26 million this week. On Saturday, the United Nations issued an urgent appeal to raise $42.8 million to help it meet immediate and basic health needs.
Turkey receives international humanitarian aid, but access to Syria is difficult, as the country is at war and its regime is under international sanctions.
During a visit to the earthquake-hit city of Aleppo in northwestern Syria, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was deeply saddened “to see the conditions the survivors find themselves in, the cold weather and very limited access to shelter, food, water, heating.” . and medical care.” Humanitarian organizations have expressed concern about the spread of the cholera epidemic that has re-emerged in Syria.
On Friday, the Syrian government agreed to deliver humanitarian aid to areas beyond its control in the north of the country, about five days after the earthquake, the official Syrian News Agency (SANA) reported.
In Syria alone, the earthquake displaced up to 5.3 million people, according to the United Nations.
Damascus said the distribution of aid should be “under the control of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Red Crescent” and with the support of the United Nations.
Humanitarian aid destined for northwestern Syria usually travels from Turkey via Bab el-Hawa, the only border crossing guaranteed by the Security Council resolution on cross-border assistance.