Eight days after the apocalyptic earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria, people are still being rescued from underneath the rubble. The earthquake is now considered one of the five deadliest in the last two decades.
More survivors were found on February 14 morning as rescuers from around the world are working in freezing temperatures to reach people under the rubble.
The death toll across Syria and Turkey rose to 36,217 on Tuesday. In Turkey, 31,643 people are known to have been killed, the country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said. In Syria, some 4,574 people have died.
Three people rescued 198 hours after earthquake
An 18-year-old named Muhammed Cafer Çetin was rescued from the rubble of a building in Adıyaman on Tuesday, the third rescue of the morning some 198 hours after last week’s devastating earthquake.
Two brothers, 17-year-old Muhammed Enes Yeninar and 21-year-old Baki Yeninarn, were rescued after they survived 198 hours under rubble in quake-hit Kahramanmaras, Turkish media reported. The survivors were seen wrapped in a thermal blanket and carried on a stretcher to an ambulance.
Miracles continue 💫 Three people rescued in Turkey 198 hours after the earthquake. Two brothers — 17-year-old Muhammed Enes Yeninar and 21-year-old Baki Yeninarn — survived 198 hours under rubble in Kahramanmaras pic.twitter.com/RkPH4XxgUn
— TVI Today (@TVIToday) February 14, 2023
10-year-old rescued alive after 7 days
A 10-year-old girl named Ayca Ceplin was rescued alive Monday in the 185th hour of Turkey’s earthquake. Ayca was pulled from the rubble of the Ebrar apartment complex in Kahramanmaras, CNN Turk reported.
Key developments
- More than 36,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands injured after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on February 6.
- At least 31,643 people killed in Turkey and 4,574 in Syria.
- About 26 million people across Turkey and Syria have been affected by the earthquakes
- More survivors were found as rescue operations ends its final phase on the eighth day after the tragic earthquakes.
Rescue operations
Nearly 4,500 search-and-rescue operations have been conducted in Turkey,and about 400 of them have been completed, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said “We have been experiencing the largest disaster in history,” he added, through an interpreter. “We are working very hard to manage it.” Fuat Oktay, Turkey’s vice president, said the country has about 34,700 people working on rescue operations.
“The rescue phase” consisting of “dragging live people out from the rubble and finding those who died in the rubble” is “coming to a close,” said the U.N.’s Griffiths, speaking from Aleppo. “Now, the humanitarian phase — the urgency of providing shelter, psychosocial care, food, schooling and a sense of the future for these people — that’s our obligation now,” he added. UN believes the humanitarian aid will be needed for at least three months.
Aid efforts
More than 100 countries have offered assistance and teams from 80 countries are on the ground assisting in rescue efforts to save and provide relief to the people affected by the earthquakes.
Turkey arrest contractors connected to buildings that collapsed
Turkish authorities have arrested a number of property developers blamed for building collapses as public anger over the quake response grows. During his visit to Diyarbakir on Monday, Turkey’s Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said in a presser that in “all earthquake-affected places, the public prosecutor’s office launched judicial investigation. In Diyarbakir alone, “the judicial process against 32 people has been started.”
Turkish authorities also arrested at least 97 people following theft and looting in the earthquake region, according to Turkey’s state-run news agency Anadolu.
Rescue efforts in Syria
Syria Civil Defense volunteer organization, known as the “White Helmets,” said the operation “to recover bodies of the deceased in several places in the countryside of Idlib and Aleppo on the eighth day since the deadly earthquake struck the region” would continue.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad decided to open “the two crossing points of Bab Al-Salam and Al Ra’ee from Türkiye to north-west Syria for an initial period of three months to allow for the timely delivery of humanitarian aid.”
Confusion and fear regarding sanctions against the Assad regime has prevented financial assistance and other aid from reaching some of the people most affected by the earthquake in Syria.
Italy is the first European country to send humanitarian aid to Syria after nearly a week, according to Syrian Red Crescent Organization (SRCS). The aid arrived in two planes that landed at Beirut airport in neighboring Lebanon and was then transferred to Syria, and includes four ambulances and 30 tons of medical and rescue supplies, said Khaled Habbouti, the head of the SRCS.