Rising casualties
More than 28,000 dead after earthquake disaster
The victims of the earthquake are buried in Adiyaman. photo
© Onur Dogman/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
Almost a week has passed since the devastating earthquakes. The hope of finding survivors is sinking. Meanwhile, the Turkish public prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation.
Just under a week after the devastating earthquake in the Turkish-Syrian border area, the number of dead has risen to more than 28,000. According to the state news agency Anadolu, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Sunday night that at least 24,617 people had died in Turkey. 3,574 deaths were recently reported from Syria. Almost 80,300 injuries have been registered so far.
Oktay said prosecutors had set up departments to investigate earthquake-related crimes in 10 provinces affected by the earthquake, on orders from the Ministry of Justice. 131 people were identified who were responsible for buildings that collapsed. One was arrested. Arrest warrants had been issued against 113 others.
Turkish City Minister Murat Kurum said that almost 172,000 buildings in ten provinces have now been inspected. It was found that around 25,000 had been badly damaged or had to be demolished urgently.
WHO: Rapidly expand aid
A 7.7 magnitude tremor shook the border area early Monday morning, followed by another 7.6 magnitude tremor at noon. Since then, there have been more than 2,000 aftershocks in the region by Saturday, according to the Turkish civil protection agency Afad.
A three-month state of emergency has now come into force in the ten affected provinces in Turkey. According to the Anadolu News Agency, the state of emergency can oblige public institutions, organizations or “legal and natural persons” in the region to hand over equipment, land, buildings, vehicles or medicines, among other things.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), aid must be significantly expanded. “We need to act with greater urgency, on a larger scale, and to organize better,” said Richard Brennan, the WHO’s emergency response director for the Eastern Mediterranean region, in Aleppo on Saturday. The death and injury numbers are immense. But what is often neglected is the large number of homeless people. In Aleppo alone, in the government-controlled part of north-west Syria, it is estimated that around 200,000 people have lost their roof over their heads. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also arrived in Syria on Saturday.