The death toll from the earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria is approaching 42,000, and as chances of finding survivors dwindle, some foreign search parties have begun to leave.
More than 36,000 people have died in the country since the February 6 earthquake, according to Turkish authorities, while the Syrian government and the United Nations have said more than 5,800 people have died in Syria.
More than a week after the disaster, rescuers, in spite of everything, found survivors under the rubble.
A 17-year-old girl named Aleyna Olmez was rescued from a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras in southeastern Turkey on Thursday morning, 248 hours after the earthquake. Anadolu news agency.
A woman named Ela and her two children were pulled from a collapsed building in Antakya, Turkey, after 228 hours in the rubble.
Rescuer Mehmet Erilmaz said that the woman asked on what day she was pulled out from the rubble.
“At first I held her hand,” Erilmaz said. Anadolu.
“We talked, chatted and calmed down [her] down. Then we continued our work… We are very happy; this is the fifth life we have saved.”
According to rescuers, Ela and her children are in “satisfactory condition”, despite the fact that they spent nine days under the rubble.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said about 4,200 employees from 15 countries had left, including teams from Greece and China. He added that there are still about 8,000 lifeguards and lifeguards from 74 countries in the country.
Syrians already displaced by the country’s ongoing civil war are now returning, with at least 1,795 people returning to Syria from Turkey’s hardest-hit provinces, Al Jazeera reported, citing a Bab checkpoint official. Al-Hawa Crossing.
The World Health Organization has named northwestern Syria an “area of greatest concern” as anger mounts over the slow delivery of humanitarian aid.
The International Rescue Committee also expressed concern, saying the delay in opening new border crossings in rebel-held territory in northwestern Syria has slowed search and rescue efforts and that time to find survivors is “tragically running out.”
The focus is now shifting to providing food and shelter for survivors, with the UN calling for some $400m (£332m) to help Syrian survivors.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited Turkey’s capital Ankara on Thursday, where he called the powerful earthquake “the deadliest natural disaster in the alliance since the founding of NATO.”
“We salute the courage of Turkey’s rescuers and mourn with them,” he said at a joint press conference with Cavusoglu.
“Going forward, the focus will be on rebuilding and supporting the displaced,” Stoltenberg said, adding that the alliance would create temporary shelters for thousands of people displaced by the earthquake.
Additional agency reporting
Source: I News
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