In 1999, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake killed over 17,000 people.
Conclude:
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged “shortcomings” on Wednesday following criticism of his government’s response to the massive earthquake that killed more than 12,000 people in Turkey and Syria.
The sheer scale of the disaster flattened thousands of buildings, trapping an unknown number of people, flooding relief operations already hampered by freezing weather.
Survivors have been left to scramble for food and shelter – and in some cases watch helplessly as their relatives called for rescue, and were eventually silenced under the rubble.
Semir Koban, a kindergarten teacher in Hatay, Turkey, said, “My nephew, my sister-in-law and my sister-in-law’s sister are in the ruins. They are trapped in the ruins and there is no sign of life.”
“We cannot reach them. We are trying to talk to them, but they are not responding… We are waiting for help. It has been 48 hours now,” he said.
Still, searchers continued to pull survivors from the rubble three days after the magnitude 7.8 quake, already one of the deadliest earthquakes of this century, even as the death toll continues to rise.
As criticism mounted online, Erdogan visited one of the hardest-hit places, Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of the earthquake, and acknowledged problems in response.
He said, “Of course, there are shortcomings. The conditions are clear to see. It is not possible to be prepared for such a disaster.”
Twitter was also not working on Turkish mobile networks, according to AFP journalists and the Netblox web monitoring group.
– Saved the kids –
The window for rescuers to find survivors is shrinking as the effort nears the 72-hour mark, which disaster experts consider the most likely period to save lives.
Still, on Wednesday, rescuers pulled children out from under a collapsed building in Turkey’s Hatay province, where entire parts of the town have been leveled.
Rescuer Alperen Cetinkaya said, “Suddenly we heard voices and thanks to the digger… Immediately we heard three voices at the same time.”
“We are expecting more of them…the chances of getting people out of here alive are very high,” he added.
Monday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed 9,057 people in Turkey and at least 3,042 in Syria, officials and medics said, bringing the total to 12,099 – but experts’ worst fears may have been realised. may still double.
In Brussels, the European Union is planning a donor conference in March to mobilize international aid for Syria and Turkey.
“Together we are now racing against the clock to save lives,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Twitter.
Von der Leyen said, “When a tragedy like this befalls people, no one should be left alone.”
– ‘People dying every second’ –
Because of the scale of the damage and the lack of aid arriving in some areas, survivors said they felt alone in responding to the disaster.
In the rebel-held town of Jindayaris, a resident named Hassan, who did not give his full name, said, “Even the buildings that did not collapse were seriously damaged. Now the rubble is full of people upstairs.” There are more people than.”
“Around 400-500 people are trapped under each collapsed building, with only 10 people trying to pull them out. And there is no machinery,” he said.
The White Helmets have appealed for international help in a “race against time” in a major effort to rescue people buried under rubble in rebel-held areas of Syria.
They have been working hard since the quake to pull survivors from under the rubble of dozens of flattened buildings that remain outside government control in war-torn Syria’s northwest.
Relief stocks will soon run out, a leading UN official has called for aid to be facilitated in rebel-held areas in the northwest.
“Put politics aside and let us do our humanitarian work,” El-Mustafa Benlamlih, the UN’s Resident Syria Coordinator, told AFP in an interview.
Syria appeals for help from the European Union
The issue of aid to Syria was a delicate one, and the sanctioned government in Damascus made an official request for help from the European Union, said Janez Lenarcic, the bloc’s commissioner for crisis management.
A decade of civil war and Syrian-Russian aerial bombardment had already destroyed hospitals, collapsed the economy and fueled power, fuel and water shortages.
Lenarcic said the European Commission is “encouraging” EU member states to respond to Syria’s request for medical supplies and food, while monitoring to ensure that President Bashar al-Assad’s None of the aid has been “diverted” by the government.
Dozens of countries have pledged to help, including the United States, China and Gulf states, and search teams as well as relief supplies have already arrived.
The European Union has rushed to send rescue teams to Turkey after Monday’s devastating earthquake near the Syrian border hit the country.
But it initially offered only minimal aid to Syria because of EU sanctions on Assad’s government since 2011 over a brutal crackdown on protesters that has spiraled into a civil war.
The Turkey-Syria border is one of the most active earthquake zones in the world.
Monday’s earthquake was the biggest Turkey has seen since 1939, when 33,000 people were killed in eastern Erzincan province.
In 1999, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake killed over 17,000 people.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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