Tremendous work was undertaken by the Turkish or Syrian rescue services to get out the survivors trapped under the rubble during the earthquakes, which caused at least 31,643 dead in southern Turkey, according to the latest reports from Afad, the Turkish public disaster management body, while the authorities have counted 3,581 dead in Syria. The UN said on Sunday that the toll could still “double”.
Further rescues now seem unlikely, well beyond the crucial 72-hour post-disaster period.
In Turkey, 34,717 people work on research areas
During the night from Sunday to Monday, seven people were rescued alive, according to the Turkish press, including a 3-year-old child in Kahramanmaras and a 60-year-old woman in Besni. A 40-year-old woman was also rescued after 170 hours in Gaziantep.
A member of a British rescue team posted a video on Twitter on Sunday showing a rescuer going through a tunnel created in the ruins of the same city and pulling out a Turk, stranded for five days.
A total of 34,717 people are currently searching for survivors, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay told local media. Some 1.2 million people have been housed in student residences and 400,000 evacuated from the area, he added.
” [Les Syriens] feel rightly abandoned”
The situation is particularly complex in Syria, where Bab-al Hawa, in the northwest, remains the only operational crossing point from Turkey to the rebel areas, also devastated by the earthquake.
“Until now we have failed the people of northwestern Syria,” acknowledged the head of the UN humanitarian agency Martin Griffiths. “They rightly feel abandoned” and it is necessary “to correct this failure as soon as possible”.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Sunday, assuring that the latter had shown himself ready to consider the opening of new crossing points to transport aid to rebel areas. According to an official of the Syrian Ministry of Transport Suleiman Khalil, 62 planes loaded with aid have so far landed in the country and more are expected in the hours and days to come, notably from Saudi Arabia.