The Turkish government has announced the suspension of all sports competitions after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that hit the south of the country and northern Syria on Monday.
“All scheduled national competitions have been canceled until further notice,” said the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoglu, in his account on the social network Twitter, also expressing his solidarity with the whole country.
The cancellation of competitions announced today by the government comes after the Football League had also announced this, as well as the organization of the Tour of Antalya, a cycling event that was to take place from Thursday.
According to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, this is already Turkey’s worst earthquake since 1939, at a time when there are records of more than 1,500 dead and countless missing, many of them under the rubble.
The Turkish press has highlighted that there are dozens of athletes from football, volleyball, handball and wrestling in the rubble of buildings, pointing to the cases of goalkeeper Ahmet Eyup Turkarslan, in Malatya city, who was rescued with his wife , and footballer Christian Atsu, formerly of FC Porto, who will be missing in the rubble in Hatay, along with Hatayspor sporting director Taner Savut.
The information made public by the Turkish press also shows that most of the volleyball players of a team from Eastern Anatolia will be buried under the rubble of the Hotel Kircuval, in Malatya, where they stayed, with the rescue of only three.
A tragic event that also affects a women’s volleyball team from Hatay and football players from Marassporm, a Turkish second division team who have all been reported missing, as well as several fighters from Karamamaras and international handball player Cemal Kutahya.
The earthquake struck at 04:17 (01:17 in Lisbon), 33 kilometers from the provincial capital of Gaziantep, in southeastern Turkey, at a depth of 17.9 kilometers.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), today’s earthquake measured 7.8 on the Richter scale and dozens of aftershocks were felt.
Official information reports the collapse of buildings in the Syrian cities of Aleppo and Hama and in Diyarbakir, Turkey, in this case more than 300 kilometers from the epicenter.
According to government sources, more than 900 buildings have been destroyed in the Turkish provinces of Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras.
Source: DN
