With hopes of finding other survivors in the rubble fading fast, the combined death toll in Turkey and neighbouring Syria from the 7.8-magnitude quake surged above 37,000 and looked set to keep increasing.
The desperate search for earthquake survivors in Turkey and Syria has entered its final hours as rescuers using sniffer dogs and thermal cameras surveyed pulverized apartment blocks for any sign of life a week after the disaster.
In the shattered Syrian city of Aleppo, United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths said the rescue phase was “coming to a close”.
“Now the humanitarian phase – the urgency of providing shelter, psycho-social care, food, schooling, and a sense of future for these people– that’s our obligation now,” he told reporters.
Still, thousands of rescue teams – including Turkish coal miners and experts aided by sniffer dogs and thermal cameras – were searching pulverised apartment blocks for signs of life.
In one dramatic rescue attempt in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, rescuers said they had contact with a grandmother, mother and baby trapped in a room in the remains of a three-storey building. Rescuers were digging a second tunnel to reach them after a first route was blocked.
“I have a very strong feeling we are going to get them,” said Burcu Baldauf, head of the Turkish voluntary healthcare team. “It’s already a miracle. After seven days they are there with no water, no food and in good condition.”, a severe shortage of tents, housing and medical supplies is imperiling
relief efforts, leaving survivors struggling amid ruins and in extreme cold.
The death toll for both countries surpassed 35,000 on Monday, and more than one million people were left homeless in Turkey alone, according to the
Turkish government. One of the most urgent needs was shelter to help the thousands of people whose homes were either destroyed or may be unsafe.
