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By Agencies
ANTAKYA: Hopes faded Thursday of finding more survivors after the earthquake that killed nearly 20,000 people in Turkey and Syria, as the first UN aid reached Syrian rebel-held zones.
Bitter cold has hampered the four-day search of thousands of flattened buildings and threatened the lives of many quake victims who are without shelter and drinking water.
Relatives were left scouring body bags laid out in a hospital car park in Turkey’s southern city of Antakya to search for missing relatives, an indication of the scale of the tragedy. “We found my aunt, but not my uncle,” said Rania Zaboubi, a Syrian refugee who lost eight members of her family as other survivors sought loved ones’ bodies.
Chances of finding survivors have dimmed now that the 72-hour mark that experts consider the most likely period to save lives has passed. The 7.8-magnitude quake struck as people slept early Monday in a region where many people had already suffered loss and displacement due to Syria’s civil war.
But in a potentially life-saving development, an aid convoy reached rebel-held northwestern Syria on Thursday, the first since the quake, an official at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing told AFP.
Emergency crews used pick axes, shovels and jackhammers to dig through twisted metal and concrete — and occasionally still pulled survivors out. But in some places, they switched the focus to demolishing unsteady buildings.
While stories of miraculous rescues briefly buoyed spirits, the grim reality of the hardship facing tens of thousands who survived the disaster cast a pall. The number of deaths has surpassed the toll in a 2011 earthquake off Japan that triggered a tsunami, killing more than 18,400 people.
ASLO READ | Fleeing war, Syrians lose adopted homes in Turkey quake
Temperatures in the Turkish city of Gaziantep plunged to minus five degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit) early Thursday, but thousands of families spent the night in cars and makeshift tents — too scared or banned from returning to their homes.
Parents walked the streets of the city — close to the epicentre of Monday’s earthquake — carrying their children in blankets because it was warmer than sitting in a tent. Some people have found sanctuary with neighbours or relatives. Some have left the region. But many have nowhere to go.
Gyms, mosques, schools and some stores have opened at night. But beds are still at a premium and thousands spend the nights in cars with engines running to provide heat.
“When we sit down, it is painful and I fear for anyone who is trapped under the rubble in this,” said Melek Halici, who wrapped her two-year-old daughter in a blanket as they watched rescuers working into the night.
International rescuers have said the intense cold has forced them to weigh whether to use their limited fuel supplies to keep warm or to carry out their work.
In northwest Syria, the first U.N. aid trucks to enter the rebel-controlled area from Turkey since the quake arrived — underscoring the difficulty of getting help to people in the country riven by civil war. In the Turkish city of Antakya, meanwhile, dozens of people scrambled for aid in front of a truck distributing children’s coats and other supplies.
One survivor, Ahmet Tokgoz, called for the government to evacuate people from the devastated region. While many of the tens of thousands who have lost their homes have found shelter in tents, stadiums and other temporary accommodations, others have spent the nights outdoors. “Especially in this cold, it is not possible to live here,” he said. “If people haven’t died from being stuck under the rubble, they’ll die from the cold.”
ALSO READ | Millions of vulnerable refugees in Turkey-Syria quake zone
Winter weather and damage to roads and airports have hampered the response in both Turkey and Syria, where a civil war that displaced millions has further complicated efforts. Some in Turkey have complained the response was too slow — a perception that could hurt President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a time when he faces a tough battle for reelection in May.
In the Turkish town of Elbistan, rescuers stood atop a high stack of rubble from a collapsed home and fished out an elderly woman who had been submerged. Teams urged quietly in the hopes of hearing stifled pleas for help, and the Syrian paramedic group in the rebel-held northwest known as White Helmets noted that “every second could mean saving a life.”
But more and more often, the teams pulled out dead bodies from under the rubble. In Turkey’s Antakya, over 100 bodies, covered by blankets and awaiting identification, lay in a makeshift morgue outside a hospital and in refrigerated trucks. With the chances of finding people alive in the rubble dwindling, teams in some places began demolishing buildings. In others, they simply had to move on.
ALSO READ | Explained: Why was the Turkey-Syria earthquake so deadly?
In Adiyaman, Associated Press journalists saw a local resident plead with rescuers to come and sift through the rubble of a building where relatives were trapped. The crew refused, saying there was no one alive there, and they had to prioritize areas where there may be survivors. A man, who gave only his name as Ahmet out of fear of government retribution, later asked the AP: “How can I go home and sleep? My brother is there. He may still be alive.”
In Nurdagi, throngs of onlookers — mostly family members of people trapped inside — watched as heavy machines ripped at one building that had collapsed, its six floors pancaked together. Mehmet Yilmaz watched from a distance, estimating that around 80 people were still beneath the rubble — but that it was unlikely any would be recovered alive. “There’s no hope,” said Yilmaz, 67, who had six relatives, including a 3-month-old baby, trapped inside.
“We can’t give up our hope in God, but they entered the building with listening devices and dogs and there was nothing.”
Authorities called off search-and-rescue operations on Thursday in the cities of Kilis and Sanliurfa, where destruction was not as severe as in other impacted regions.
WATCH |
Across the border in war-riven Syria, assistance trickled in. Smaller aid organizations have sent in shipments to Syria’s rebel-held northwest, but the first U.N. trucks arrived Thursday. The U.N. is only authorized to deliver aid through one border crossing and road damage has prevented that thus far.U.N. officials said more was needed, and they pleaded for humanitarian concerns to take precedence over politics.
The scale of loss and suffering to tend to remained massive. Turkish authorities said Thursday that the death toll had risen to more than 16,100 in the country, with more than 64,000 injured. On the Syrian side, which includes government-held and rebel-held areas, of the border, more than 3,100 have been reported dead and more than 5,000 injured.
It was not clear how many people were still unaccounted for in both countries.
IN PHOTOS | Death toll and grief climb as earthquakes devastate Turkey, Syria
Among the missing were members of a high-school volleyball team from northern Cyprus, as well as teachers and parents who had been staying in a hotel that collapsed, said Nazim Cavusoglu, the education minister in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north, on Turkey’s NTV television.
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. Teams from places as diverse as Poland, Switzerland, Israel and the West Bank were contributing to the deployment to Turkey.
But international aid for Syria was far more sparse, where efforts have been hampered by the ongoing war and the isolation of the rebel-held region along the border that is surrounded by Russia-backed government forces. Syria itself is an international pariah under Western sanctions linked to the war.
The U.N. shipment was scheduled before the earthquake happened but was delayed by road damage. U.N. officials said more trucks were set to follow. Erdogan, who continued touring devastated areas Thursday, has sought to deflect criticism of the response — and vowed it was improving. He renewed a promise to quake survivors that destroyed homes would be rebuilt within a year. He has said the government will distribute 10,000 Turkish lira ($532) to affected families.
(With inputs from AFP, AP)
ANTAKYA: Hopes faded Thursday of finding more survivors after the earthquake that killed nearly 20,000 people in Turkey and Syria, as the first UN aid reached Syrian rebel-held zones.
Bitter cold has hampered the four-day search of thousands of flattened buildings and threatened the lives of many quake victims who are without shelter and drinking water.
Relatives were left scouring body bags laid out in a hospital car park in Turkey’s southern city of Antakya to search for missing relatives, an indication of the scale of the tragedy. “We found my aunt, but not my uncle,” said Rania Zaboubi, a Syrian refugee who lost eight members of her family as other survivors sought loved ones’ bodies.
Chances of finding survivors have dimmed now that the 72-hour mark that experts consider the most likely period to save lives has passed. The 7.8-magnitude quake struck as people slept early Monday in a region where many people had already suffered loss and displacement due to Syria’s civil war.
But in a potentially life-saving development, an aid convoy reached rebel-held northwestern Syria on Thursday, the first since the quake, an official at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing told AFP.
Emergency crews used pick axes, shovels and jackhammers to dig through twisted metal and concrete — and occasionally still pulled survivors out. But in some places, they switched the focus to demolishing unsteady buildings.
While stories of miraculous rescues briefly buoyed spirits, the grim reality of the hardship facing tens of thousands who survived the disaster cast a pall. The number of deaths has surpassed the toll in a 2011 earthquake off Japan that triggered a tsunami, killing more than 18,400 people.
ASLO READ | Fleeing war, Syrians lose adopted homes in Turkey quake
Temperatures in the Turkish city of Gaziantep plunged to minus five degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit) early Thursday, but thousands of families spent the night in cars and makeshift tents — too scared or banned from returning to their homes.
Parents walked the streets of the city — close to the epicentre of Monday’s earthquake — carrying their children in blankets because it was warmer than sitting in a tent. Some people have found sanctuary with neighbours or relatives. Some have left the region. But many have nowhere to go.
Gyms, mosques, schools and some stores have opened at night. But beds are still at a premium and thousands spend the nights in cars with engines running to provide heat.
“When we sit down, it is painful and I fear for anyone who is trapped under the rubble in this,” said Melek Halici, who wrapped her two-year-old daughter in a blanket as they watched rescuers working into the night.
International rescuers have said the intense cold has forced them to weigh whether to use their limited fuel supplies to keep warm or to carry out their work.
In northwest Syria, the first U.N. aid trucks to enter the rebel-controlled area from Turkey since the quake arrived — underscoring the difficulty of getting help to people in the country riven by civil war. In the Turkish city of Antakya, meanwhile, dozens of people scrambled for aid in front of a truck distributing children’s coats and other supplies.
One survivor, Ahmet Tokgoz, called for the government to evacuate people from the devastated region. While many of the tens of thousands who have lost their homes have found shelter in tents, stadiums and other temporary accommodations, others have spent the nights outdoors. “Especially in this cold, it is not possible to live here,” he said. “If people haven’t died from being stuck under the rubble, they’ll die from the cold.”
ALSO READ | Millions of vulnerable refugees in Turkey-Syria quake zone
Winter weather and damage to roads and airports have hampered the response in both Turkey and Syria, where a civil war that displaced millions has further complicated efforts. Some in Turkey have complained the response was too slow — a perception that could hurt President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a time when he faces a tough battle for reelection in May.
In the Turkish town of Elbistan, rescuers stood atop a high stack of rubble from a collapsed home and fished out an elderly woman who had been submerged. Teams urged quietly in the hopes of hearing stifled pleas for help, and the Syrian paramedic group in the rebel-held northwest known as White Helmets noted that “every second could mean saving a life.”
But more and more often, the teams pulled out dead bodies from under the rubble. In Turkey’s Antakya, over 100 bodies, covered by blankets and awaiting identification, lay in a makeshift morgue outside a hospital and in refrigerated trucks. With the chances of finding people alive in the rubble dwindling, teams in some places began demolishing buildings. In others, they simply had to move on.
ALSO READ | Explained: Why was the Turkey-Syria earthquake so deadly?
In Adiyaman, Associated Press journalists saw a local resident plead with rescuers to come and sift through the rubble of a building where relatives were trapped. The crew refused, saying there was no one alive there, and they had to prioritize areas where there may be survivors. A man, who gave only his name as Ahmet out of fear of government retribution, later asked the AP: “How can I go home and sleep? My brother is there. He may still be alive.”
In Nurdagi, throngs of onlookers — mostly family members of people trapped inside — watched as heavy machines ripped at one building that had collapsed, its six floors pancaked together. Mehmet Yilmaz watched from a distance, estimating that around 80 people were still beneath the rubble — but that it was unlikely any would be recovered alive. “There’s no hope,” said Yilmaz, 67, who had six relatives, including a 3-month-old baby, trapped inside.
“We can’t give up our hope in God, but they entered the building with listening devices and dogs and there was nothing.”
Authorities called off search-and-rescue operations on Thursday in the cities of Kilis and Sanliurfa, where destruction was not as severe as in other impacted regions.
WATCH |
Across the border in war-riven Syria, assistance trickled in. Smaller aid organizations have sent in shipments to Syria’s rebel-held northwest, but the first U.N. trucks arrived Thursday. The U.N. is only authorized to deliver aid through one border crossing and road damage has prevented that thus far.
U.N. officials said more was needed, and they pleaded for humanitarian concerns to take precedence over politics.
The scale of loss and suffering to tend to remained massive. Turkish authorities said Thursday that the death toll had risen to more than 16,100 in the country, with more than 64,000 injured. On the Syrian side, which includes government-held and rebel-held areas, of the border, more than 3,100 have been reported dead and more than 5,000 injured.
It was not clear how many people were still unaccounted for in both countries.
IN PHOTOS | Death toll and grief climb as earthquakes devastate Turkey, Syria
Among the missing were members of a high-school volleyball team from northern Cyprus, as well as teachers and parents who had been staying in a hotel that collapsed, said Nazim Cavusoglu, the education minister in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north, on Turkey’s NTV television.
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. Teams from places as diverse as Poland, Switzerland, Israel and the West Bank were contributing to the deployment to Turkey.
But international aid for Syria was far more sparse, where efforts have been hampered by the ongoing war and the isolation of the rebel-held region along the border that is surrounded by Russia-backed government forces. Syria itself is an international pariah under Western sanctions linked to the war.
The U.N. shipment was scheduled before the earthquake happened but was delayed by road damage. U.N. officials said more trucks were set to follow. Erdogan, who continued touring devastated areas Thursday, has sought to deflect criticism of the response — and vowed it was improving. He renewed a promise to quake survivors that destroyed homes would be rebuilt within a year. He has said the government will distribute 10,000 Turkish lira ($532) to affected families.
(With inputs from AFP, AP)
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