Antakya/Kahramanmaras: Survivors were still being pulled from the rubble in earthquake-hit Turkey, but for many grieving families their only hope was to find the remains of their loved ones so they could bury them in their graves. can mourn
“Would you pray to find the body? We do it … to deliver the body to the next of kin,” bulldozer operator Akin Bozkert said as his machine clawed at the rubble of a destroyed building in the town of Kahramanmaras. said
“You pulled a body out from under tons of debris. The family is waiting with hope,” Bozkert said. “They want to have a burial ceremony. They want a grave.”
According to Islamic tradition, the dead should be buried as soon as possible.
Yunus Cezer, head of Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, said search and rescue efforts would largely end by Sunday night.
More than 46,000 people have been killed since the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on February 6. The death toll is expected to rise, with around 345,000 apartments in Turkey destroyed, and many more missing.
Neither Turkey nor Syria has said how many people are missing after the earthquake.
Twelve days after the earthquake, Kyrgyz workers tried to rescue a Syrian family of five from the rubble of a building in Antakya, southern Turkey.
Three persons including a child were rescued alive. The mother and father survived, but the child later died of dehydration, the rescue team said. An older sister and a twin never made it.
“When we were digging an hour ago today, we heard screams. We are always happy when we find people alive,” Atay Osmanov, a member of the rescue team, told JEE News.
Ten ambulances were waiting on a nearby road which was closed to traffic to allow rescue work.
Workers called for complete silence and for everyone to crouch or sit down as teams climbed over the rubble of the building where the family was found to listen for more voices using electronic detectors.
As rescue efforts continued, one worker buried in the rubble shouted: “If you can hear me, take a deep breath.”
With sanitation infrastructure damaged, health officials are concerned about the potential spread of infection.
The World Health Organization estimates that around 26 million people in both Turkey and Syria are in need of humanitarian assistance.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blanken will arrive in Turkey on Sunday to discuss how Washington can further help Ankara as it recovers from its worst natural disaster in modern times.
In Syria, where more than 5,800 have died, the World Food Program (WFP) said authorities in the country’s northwest were blocking access to the area.
“This is an obstacle to our work. It has to be fixed immediately,” WFP director David Beasley told JEE News on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
Most of the casualties in Syria are in the northwest, a rebel-held area fighting forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
Beasley added, “Time is running out and we’re running out of money. Our operation is about $50 million a month just for the earthquake response, so unless Europe wants a new wave of refugees, we need that help. Need to get what we need.”
Thousands of Syrians who sought refuge in Turkey from the civil war have returned to their homes in the war zone, at least for now.
