Three people were found alive this Saturday among the rubble in the Turkish province of Hatay, 13 days after the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, which caused more than 40,000 deaths, according to a new balance of the Turkish authorities.
The Turkish authorities raise today to about 40,000 the number of deaths due to the earthquakes registered on February 6 in the south of the country, near the border with Syria, a country in which nearly 4,000 people have already died, according to official data. .
The Turkish Interior Minister, Suleyman Soylu, explained that, so far, 39,672 deaths have been confirmed in the ten provinces affected by the earthquakes, which also left more than 13 million people homeless.
However, according to the private Turkish broadcaster NTV, three people, including a child, were found alive in Hatay, 296 hours after the earthquake. However, soon after, the 12-year-old boy died.
Suleyman Soylu reiterated that the priority remains search and rescue efforts, although the time elapsed since the quakes reduces the chances of continuing to find survivors among the rubble of thousands of collapsed buildings.
Soylu stressed that more than 264,000 workers are deployed on the ground, including search and rescue services, health professionals and agents, noting that there are designated planes, helicopters and ships to deliver the aid.
For his part, the Turkish Defense Minister, Hulusi Akar, stressed that at this time a call for “unity and solidarity” must be made.
“We will do everything possible to heal these wounds,” he explained, quoted by Turkey’s state-run Anatolia news agency.
Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay also denied that search and rescue efforts have stopped, detailing that more than 374,000 people had already been evacuated from the affected regions, including nearly 1,600 unaccompanied children. However, he said that more than 950 “have already been reunited with their families.”
To the death toll in Turkey must be added 1,414 dead in areas of Syria controlled by the government and 2,274 dead in areas in the hands of the rebels, according to data from the Syrian Civil Defense, known as the ‘white helmets’.
The World Health Organization (WHO) regional director of emergencies, Rick Brennan, said last week in Damascus that the organization estimates that at least 9,300 have died in Syria – some 4,800 in areas controlled by the authorities and 4,500 in areas in rebellious hands-, although he qualified that at this moment there is no way to make an adjusted projection.
The earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, measuring 7.7 and 7.6 on the Richter scale, respectively, occurred on February 6 and the official death toll is around 44,000 in both countries, a figure that is expected to continue to rise. .
* News updated at 11:52 am
Source: TSF
