A massive rescue effort in Turkey and Syria battled frigid weather in a race against time Tuesday to find survivors under buildings flattened by an earthquake that killed more than 5,000 people.<\/p>\n
Tremors that inflicted more suffering on a border area already plagued by conflict left people on the streets burning debris to try to stay warm.<\/p>\n
Rescuers were working on collapsed apartments with heavy equipment as a worldwide relief effort promised food, search teams and equipment for the disaster zone.<\/p>\n
“We live on the first floor out of three, we’re too scared to return,” said Imam Caglar, 42, in the Turkish city of Sanliurfa. “Our building is not safe at all.”<\/p>\n
“My mother-in-law, my father-in-law, and two of my father-in-law’s sons (are trapped),” said Mahmud al-Ali in the Syrian city of Aleppo. “We are sitting here in the cold and rain and waiting for the rescuers to start digging.”<\/p>\n
The 7.8-magnitude quake struck Monday as people slept, flattening thousands of structures, trapping an unknown number of people and potentially impacting millions.<\/p>\n
Whole rows of buildings collapsed, leaving some of the heaviest devastation near the quake’s epicentre between the Turkish cities of Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras.<\/p>\n
The destruction led to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declaring Tuesday a three-month state of emergency in 10 southeastern provinces.<\/p>\n
– Fears toll will rise –<\/p>\n
A winter storm has compounded the misery by rendering many roads — some of them damaged by the quake — almost impassable, resulting in traffic jams that stretch for kilometres in some regions.<\/p>\n
The cold rain and snow are a risk both for people forced from their homes — who took refuge in mosques, schools or even bus shelters — and the survivors buried under debris.<\/p>\n
“It is now a race against time,” said World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.<\/p>\n
“We have activated the WHO network of emergency medical teams to provide essential health care for the injured and most vulnerable,” he added.<\/p>\n
Turkey put the latest death toll at 3,419 in that country alone — bringing the confirmed tally in both Turkey and Syria to 5,021.<\/p>\n
There are fears that the toll will rise inexorably, with WHO officials estimating up to 20,000 may have died.<\/p>\n
WHO warned that up to 23 million people could be affected by the massive earthquake and urged nations to rush help to the disaster zone.<\/p>\n
The Syrian Red Crescent appealed to Western countries to lift sanctions and provide aid as President Bashar al-Assad’s government remains a pariah in the West, complicating international relief efforts.<\/p>\n
Washington and the European Commission said on Monday that humanitarian programmes supported by them were responding to the destruction in Syria.<\/p>\n
– ‘My family under rubble’ –<\/p>\n
The UN’s cultural agency UNESCO also said it was ready to provide assistance after two sites listed on its World Heritage list in Syria and Turkey sustained damage.<\/p>\n
In addition to the damage to Aleppo’s old city and the fortress in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, UNESCO said at least three other World Heritage sites could be affected.<\/p>\n
Much of the quake-hit area of northern Syria has already been decimated by years of war and aerial bombardment by Syrian and Russia forces that destroyed homes, hospitals and clinics.<\/p>\n
Residents in the quake-devastated town of Jandairis in northern Syria used their bare hands and pickaxes to for survivors, as that was all they had to get the job done.<\/p>\n
“My whole family is under there — my sons, my daughter, my son-in-law… There’s no one else to get them out,” said Ali Battal, his face streaked with blood and head swathed in a wool shawl against the bitter cold.<\/p>\n
“I hear their voices. I know they’re alive but there’s no one to rescue them,” adds the man in his 60s.<\/p>\n
The Syrian health ministry reported damage across the provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Tartus, where Russia is leasing a naval facility.<\/p>\n
Even before the tragedy, buildings in Aleppo — Syria’s pre-war commercial hub — often collapsed due to the dilapidated infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Following the earthquake, prisoners mutinied at a jail holding mostly Islamic State group members in northwestern Syria, with at least 20 escaping, a source at the facility told AFP.<\/p>\n
– Offers of help –<\/p>\n
The United States, the European Union and Russia led international messages of condolence and offers of help.<\/p>\n
President Joe Biden promised his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the United States will send “any and all” aid needed to help recover.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered to provide “the necessary assistance” to Turkey, whose combat drones are helping Kyiv fight the Russian invasion.<\/p>\n
Chinese state media said on Tuesday that Beijing was sending rescuers, medical teams and other supplies.<\/p>\n
Turkey is in one of the world’s most active earthquake zones.<\/p>\n
The country’s last 7.8-magnitude tremor was in 1939, when 33,000 died in the eastern Erzincan province.<\/p>\n
The Turkish region of Duzce suffered a 7.4-magnitude earthquake in 1999, when more than 17,000 people died.<\/p>\n
Experts have long warned a large quake could devastate Istanbul, a megalopolis of 16 million people filled with rickety homes.BSS\/AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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