Emergency crews managed to pull more survivors from the rubble a week after the earthquake that killed more than 33,000 people in Turkey and Syria.
In total, 33,186 people died, 29,605 in Turkey and 3,581 in Syria, after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake, according to medical and government sources in both countries.
A child and a 62-year-old woman were the latest cases of miraculous rescue, after nearly seven days trapped in the rubble of buildings that collapsed in the devastating earthquake on Feb. 6.
Seven-year-old Mustafa was rescued in the Turkish province of Hatay, while Nafize Yilmaz was found alive in Nurdagi, also in Hatay, state news agency Anadolu reported on Monday. Both spent 163 hours trapped in the rubble before rescues on Sunday night.
More than 32,000 people from local organizations work in the search and rescue efforts, alongside 8,294 volunteers from abroad, the Disaster and Emergencies Management Authority (AFAD) said.
A member of a British rescue team posted a video on Twitter on Sunday showing a volunteer descending through a tunnel cut through the rubble in Hatay, where he found a Turk who remained trapped for five days amidst the destruction.
The teams are working against time, as experts warn that the possibility of finding people alive decreases every day.
In the destroyed Turkish town of Kahramanmaras, near the quake’s epicenter, volunteers dug through mountains of rubble and found a body.
But rescuers complain about a lack of sensors and advanced search equipment, which means they have to carefully dig through the rubble with shovels or by hand.
“If we had this kind of equipment, we would have saved hundreds of lives, if not more,” said Alaa Moubarak, head of Civil Defense in Jableh, northwest Syria.
– Lack of aid in Syria –
The UN denounced that not all the help Syria desperately needs has been sent.
A convoy of supplies for northwest Syria arrived via Turkey, but UN emergency director Martin Griffiths stressed that much more was needed for the millions of people whose homes had been destroyed.
“So far we have failed the people of northwest Syria. They feel abandoned. They seek international help that does not arrive,” Griffiths said on Twitter.
When assessing the damage on Saturday in southern Turkey, when the balance was 28,000 dead, Griffiths said that the number could “double or even more”, because the possibility of finding survivors is less and less.
Aid has been slow to arrive in Syria, a country facing years of civil war, a conflict that has destroyed its health system. Some parts of the country remain under the control of rebels fighting the government of President Bashar al Assad.
A convoy of 10 UN trucks entered northwest Syria through the Bab al Hawa border crossing, according to an AFP correspondent.
Bab al Hawa is the only point through which international aid can enter areas of Syria under rebel control after nearly 12 years of civil war. Other points were closed due to pressure from China and Russia.
World Health Organization (WHO) director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met Assad in Damascus on Sunday and said the Syrian president had said he was willing to open more border crossings to allow aid into rebel-held areas. .
– Conflict, covid, cholera –
“The combined crises of conflict, covid, cholera, economic decline and now the earthquake are taking an unbearable toll,” said Tedros after visiting the Syrian city of Aleppo.
Damascus has approved the entry of aid convoys from areas under government control, but Tedros said the WHO is awaiting authorization from rebel-held areas to enter some regions.
Assad expects more “efficient cooperation” with the UN agency to solve the lack of supplies, equipment and medicine, indicated the Syrian presidency.
But security concerns in Turkey have caused some rescue operations to be suspended. Many people were detained for looting and for trying to defraud earthquake victims, according to state media.
An Israeli emergency organization announced on Sunday that it was suspending rescue tasks in Turkey because of a “significant” threat to the safety of its staff.
– Irritation –
In Turkey, anger is growing over the poor quality of buildings and the government’s response to the country’s biggest disaster in almost a century.
A total of 12,141 buildings collapsed or were seriously damaged in the country.
Ten people were detained as part of the investigations, including two who tried to flee to Georgia.
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