Rescuers are running out of body bags as they were forced to dig mass graves after a devastating earthquake killed thousands in Turkey and Syria.
International relief efforts are intensifying after a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake that killed more than 5,000 people. Tens of thousands are still injured.
As efforts continue to rescue survivors from the rubble, the World Health Organization has warned that the death toll could reach 20,000 in the coming days.
Salah Abulghasem, an Islamic rescuer who flew to Turkey after the deadly earthquake, said the extent of the destruction he saw was “incredible”.
“In fifteen years I have visited many war zones and disasters. But it’s a disaster,” he said. I. “It’s hard for me to understand, but I see photos of my colleagues from mass graves.
“With so many bodies they are recovering, there is not enough space to bury them, so they bury whole families.
“Today, when we hold meetings in our offices and develop needs and requirements, one of the main needs that our offices in Syria tell us is that they lack body bags.”
The catastrophe will exacerbate the existing humanitarian crisis in Syria, which has been largely devastated after more than a decade of civil war.
More than four out of five Syrians now live in poverty, and the prices of basic commodities have skyrocketed in recent years.
About 70 percent do not have access to clean water or enough food, and more than one in eight children are not in school.
“We are always optimistic, we are always trying to do our best and are looking for ways and means to help people, but… an almost impossible situation is getting worse,” Mr. Abulgasem said.
“We just hope that the world community will turn its back on the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria and also here in Turkey and provide assistance and support not only now but in the coming weeks and months as people strive to build their own.” problems discharged to live together again.”
Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay on Tuesday said the death toll in southeastern Turkey had risen to 3,419, while Syria’s state news agency said at least 812 people had been killed in government-controlled provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama , Idlib and Tartus.
Another 790 people have died in opposition-held northwest Syria, according to a White Helmets rescue team.
Rescue efforts continue as emergency services, humanitarian groups and local residents make their way through the rubble in search of survivors.
However, the response was thwarted by Turkey, which stopped the delivery of critical supplies to northwestern Syria due to damage to the road caused by the earthquake.
Some residents in Turkey’s Hatay province said they heard the voices of loved ones trapped under the rubble, but were unable to rescue them.
There are also helpers among those who died as a result of the disaster.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has confirmed that one of their staff members has died at his home in the Syrian province of Idlib, while Action For Humanity/Syria Relief has also confirmed that one of their doctors, who worked in one of the mobile medical organization clinics, died. killed along with her child in the same area.
Source: I News
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