More than 24,000 people died as a result of the violent earthquake that shook southern Turkey and Syria on Monday, according to official figures published today.
According to Afad, a Turkish relief organization, 20,665 bodies have been removed from the rubble in Turkey so far, and 3,553 bodies have been counted in Syria, according to an official balance.
These figures bring to 24,218 the total deaths in the two countries struck by an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, which was followed by several aftershocks, one of them measuring 7.5.
Emergency teams today rescued several people who remained buried under rubble in different cities in Turkey for more than 120 hours.
Masallah Çiçek, a 55-year-old woman, was rescued alive this morning from the ruins of her apartment in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, 122 hours after the earthquake.
Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency said the woman was injured and hospitalized, while rescue teams continue to search for another possible survivor under the rubble of the same building.
Another rescue was broadcast live on Turkish television channels in the early hours of the morning, when another woman, Violet Tabak, 70, was pulled alive from a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras, in the south of the country, 121 hours after the earthquake.
However, hopes of finding more survivors are waning by the minute and rescue work has already stopped in some areas, with crews beginning to remove rubble.
AFAD, under the auspices of the Turkish Interior Ministry, said that around 160,000 search and rescue team members, including international teams and NGOs, are working in the affected areas.
The 53-member Portuguese team sent to Turkey is already operating search and rescue missions in the country, Interior Administration Minister José Luís Carneiro said on Friday.
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, today announced a special grant of $25 million (23.3 million euros) to bolster relief efforts in Syria.
The funds, which come from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund, will try to respond to the most urgent needs of the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the earthquakes, the UN said in a statement.
Griffiths is in Gaziantep, southern Turkey, and travels to Aleppo, northwestern Syria, on Sunday.
The Syrian government announced on Friday that it will accept international aid to be sent to areas controlled by rebel forces from areas under its control.
Source: TSF
