More than 8000 dead – helpers from all over the world fly to the crisis area

Istanbul The rescue of people buried in the earthquake areas in southern Turkey and northern Syria continues under great time pressure. Two days after the natural disaster that killed thousands, the hope of finding survivors under the rubble of collapsed buildings in the sometimes wintry temperatures is fading.

Rescue workers with heavy equipment were also on duty on Wednesday night. More and more support is coming from abroad. A team of 50 from the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) left Cologne/Bonn Airport early Wednesday morning for the disaster area.

On the second night after the severe earthquake in the Turkish-Syrian border area, relatives and rescue workers continued to search for buried people. The salvage activities in the earthquake areas were still in full swing, as Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay announced late Tuesday evening. “This work will continue until we reach the last citizen under the rubble.”

According to Oktay, around 16,150 rescue and search teams are deployed – they have been deployed to all affected provinces and districts. A total of around 60,000 helpers are on site. The government politician said that international and local teams would be brought to the provinces of Adiyaman, Hatay and Kahramanmaras on Wednesday night, partly by air. The weather conditions allowed such flights, which made the work easier.

For many people, however, any help came too late. According to the authorities, on Wednesday night the death toll rose to more than 8,700. More than 39,200 people were injured. According to Oktay, at least 6,234 people have been killed and more than 37,000 injured in Turkey alone.

23 million people affected by the earthquake

According to the local Ministry of Health and the rescue organization White Helmets, more than 2,500 people died in Syria. In addition, there are more than 4,650 injured. According to estimates by the Pacific Disaster Center, a US disaster relief organization, around 23 million people have been affected by the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.

Antalya

People are looking for survivors.

(Photo: dpa)

With a magnitude of 7.7 to 7.8, the quake shook the area on the border between Turkey and Syria early Monday morning. Another earthquake of magnitude 7.5 followed in the same region on Monday afternoon. Thousands of buildings collapsed. Temperatures around freezing point made things even harder for the survivors in the disaster area, and many of them no longer have a roof over their heads. The full extent of the catastrophe is only slowly becoming clear.

According to an initial estimate by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), an estimated 150,000 people in Turkey have become homeless. In southern Turkey’s Kahramanmaras alone, 941 buildings have been completely destroyed, said Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.

German relief teams also took up their work. Helpers from the organization ISAR were involved in rescuing a buried woman, said the organization, which is helping in the hard-hit city of Kirikhan near the Turkish-Syrian border. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) assured Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of further support.

A 50-person team from the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), which specializes in locating and rescuing people who have been buried, made their way to Turkey. The group took off on Wednesday night with 16 tons of technology and equipment in a charter plane from Cologne/Bonn Airport to Gaziantep.

THW expects a difficult mission

In the Turkish city, the location in the earthquake region will be determined with the local authorities. In view of the extent of the destruction and the risk of aftershocks, the THW expects a difficult and possibly longer operation in the earthquake region of Turkey, as THW President Gerd Friedsam made clear before the team’s departure.

While aid has started on a large scale in Turkey, many of those affected in Syria are waiting for rescue teams. Foreign Minister Baerbock said there is currently only one open border crossing, which was damaged in the earthquake. “That’s why opening the border crossings is so important.”

relief supplies

In Aalen, volunteers sort relief supplies for the people of Turkey.

(Photo: dpa)

All international actors – including Russia – should “use their influence on the Syrian regime so that the humanitarian aid for the victims can also arrive there.” No additional hurdles should be set up.

More big earthquakes likely in the near future

Rescuers in Syria suspect hundreds of families are still buried under the rubble. One of the hardest hit areas is the rebel-controlled region of Idlib, where state emergency aid is difficult due to the hostile forces in the civil war. After more than eleven years of war, the government troops of the ruler Bashar al-Assad control around two thirds of Syria again.

Jinderis in Aleppo province

Many people were also killed in the tremors in Syria.

(Photo: AP)

According to the UN, the tremors in the civil war country mainly hit people who were already living in great need. Many of the internally displaced people who lived in dilapidated accommodation before the disaster had to spend the night outside in freezing temperatures, as a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR told the German Press Agency.

Experts assume that there could be earthquakes of a similar size in nearby regions in the near future. The reason for this is stress redistribution, said Marco Bohnhoff from the German Geo Research Center (GFZ) Potsdam of the German Press Agency. More tremors could follow, particularly to the northeast further inland.

More: How the earthquake could lift Syria out of isolation

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