Turkey and Syria search against the clock for survivors of the earthquakes that have caused more than 5,000 deaths

2023-02-07T11:02:06.681Z

Hundreds of thousands of people spend the night in their vehicles or crowded into sports centers and shelters. Authorities fear that the final death toll will be much higher.

A new day has dawned on two countries devastated by tragedy.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Turkey and Syria have spent the night in their vehicles or crowded into sports centers and shelters, some even on the streets trying to fight the low temperatures with makeshift bonfires.

Their homes are a pile of rubble, they have been damaged or they fear that they have been and that they may collapse with the passing of the hours.

Many of them are waiting for news of their loved ones, trapped under the rubble.

The death toll does not stop increasing: it already exceeds 5,000 between the two countries, but it is feared that the final number will be much higher.

More information

Turkey and Syria earthquakes, last minute live

The Government of Turkey reported that almost 40 hours after the first earthquake, of magnitude 7.8, there have been 3,419 deaths and more than 20,000 injuries.

In Syria, the death toll amounts to 1,602 and the wounded number in the thousands, including those in areas under government control and those in rebel-controlled territory.

But the destruction is such - only in Turkey more than 5,000 buildings have been completely destroyed by the earthquakes and their strong aftershocks - that the World Health Organization (WHO) fears that the death toll will continue to rise to over 20,000.

“Unfortunately we see the same thing in all earthquakes.

The initial numbers of people killed or injured will increase significantly this week," said Catherine Smallwood, WHO's European emergencies manager.

According to Turkey's emergency management agency (AFAD), 16,400 rescuers, both from the Turkish agency and from abroad, have worked through the night clearing rubble and opening tunnels to try to rescue those still left in the ruins. .

The first 48-72 working hours are crucial to finding survivors;

afterwards, the chances that those who have been trapped will remain alive are considerably reduced, even more so considering that, overnight, many of the affected provinces have registered temperatures below zero, rain or snow.

According to Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay, about 8,000 people have already been rescued from the rubble.

Members of the rescue teams work among the rubble of a collapsed building in the city of Adana (Turkey).

Hussein Malla (AP)

Residents of the town of Gaziantep (Turkey) observe the rescue efforts.

SUHAIB SALEM (REUTERS)

Emergency workers rescue five-year-old Muhammet Ruzgar from the ruins of a building in the city of Hatay, Turkey.

UMIT BEKTAS (REUTERS)

The body of a Syrian child in the rubble of a building in the town of Jandaris, in the province of Aleppo.

MOHAMMED AL-RIFAI (AFP)

A woman cries next to the remains of a collapsed building in the Turkish city of Alexandretta.

ERDEM SAHIN (EFE)

A resident, after being rescued by emergency services in the Turkish city of Hatay.

UMIT BEKTAS (REUTERS)

Search work for survivors in the city of Alejandreta (Turkey).

ERDEM SAHIN (EFE)

Emergency members look for survivors among the rubble of a building in the town of Adana (Turkey). Hussein Malla (AP)

Panoramic view of the Turkish city of Alexandretta after the earthquake, this Tuesday.

DEPO PHOTOS (via REUTERS)

Several women cry next to the remains of a collapsed building in the Turkish city of Hatay, this Tuesday.

UMIT BEKTAS (REUTERS)

Members of the rescue teams work among the rubble of a collapsed apartment building in Adana (Turkey).

Tolga Ildun / Zuma Press / ContactPhoto (Tolga Ildun / Zuma Press / Conta)

Rescue workers warm themselves at a bonfire in the Syrian town of Sarmada.

AAREF WATAD (AFP)

A woman is rescued by emergency services in the Turkish city of Alexandretta.

UMIT BEKTAS (REUTERS)

Several residents spend the night on the street in the town of Alejandreta (Turkey).

ERDEM SAHIN (EFE)

It is a heavy and delicate task, which requires the efforts of dozens of people and is hindered by continuous aftershocks (some 300, according to AFAD).

For example, in the city of Kahramanmaras, around five in the morning local time (two hours less in mainland Spain), the emergency teams managed to rescue the young Can alive.

They had located him hours before, but this 14-year-old teenager had been trapped by the cement blocks and multi-story beams that fell on him, according to the CNN-Türk network.

Finally, after four hours of work, he was able to be extracted from the skeleton of the building and transferred to a hospital without serious injuries.

But there have also been complaints from several affected towns that aid has not reached, especially in the Turkish province of Hatay, located between the Mediterranean coast and the Syrian border.

In videos posted on social networks, residents of the area ask the authorities to send specialized teams because, without machinery, they cannot free the trapped people.

"25 hours have passed and this is the situation," explained Baris Atay, vice president of the Turkish Workers' Party, in a video sent to journalists and recorded in front of a demolished building in the city of Antioquia where no construction work was being carried out. rescue: “Inside is a friend of mine.

He's still alive, he only has a broken foot.

We're trying to get it out, but we can't work because it's dark.

There is a group of construction workers who have volunteered and are pulling people out of other collapsed buildings, some dead unfortunately.

But apart from these volunteer workers there is no one, these people are being left to die”.

deep cracks

The light of the new day has made it possible to see the extent of the destruction.

In provinces traversed by the eastern Anatolian fault line, the ground has split open in deep cracks, rendering roads and the Hatay airport runway useless.

The asphalt of the road that leads from Antioch to Reyhanli - one of the gateways for products to Syria - is so cracked and fractured that it has been closed to traffic.

Images of the port of Alexandretta (Iskenderun), the most important in the area, show the large shipping containers scattered on the ground by the force of the tremors, as if they were simple cardboard boxes blown by the wind, and large cracks in the ground .

As if that were not enough, a large fire has broken out in the port that Coast Guard teams are trying to put out.

Fire in the port of Alexandretta on Monday.Anadolu Agency (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

In fact, it is still unknown where the ships

Juan Carlos I

and

Galicia

of the Spanish Navy will dock, which on Monday afternoon set course for Turkey with 500 marines and aid material for the victims of the earthquake.

Assistance mobilized from abroad is already beginning to arrive in the area and specialists have been deployed.

But the two military planes sent by Spain with teams from the Military Emergency Unit (UME) and firefighters could not land this morning at the Adana airport due to aircraft congestion and had to do so at the Antalya airport, where the crews they spent the night and from where they will fly to the affected area throughout this Tuesday.

The Minister of the Environment and Urban Planning, Murat Kurum, explained that in Turkey, 13.5 million people have been "directly affected" by the earthquake and assured that the Government is working to provide them with help and solve infrastructure problems. for example, by sending mobile power generation stations, since the power grid has been damaged at many points.

Hundreds of thousands of people have spent the night outside their homes.

According to the Turkish vice president, 338,000 have been accommodated in student residences, universities and schools.

Dozens of sports centers have been opened where, according to the images on Turkish television, the victims crowd.

But there are also people who have spent the night in their vehicles or on the street.

Temperatures in towns like Malatya have dropped overnight to 5 degrees below zero and, precisely in this city, snowfall is expected to continue through Tuesday.

The army warned late Monday of the need for tents as camps are being set up to accommodate those unable to return to their homes.

Across Turkey, organizations of all kinds – from schools to municipalities and NGOs – have called for donations of blankets, mobile stoves, warm clothes, baby and feminine hygiene products and canned food to send to the earthquake zone.