Rescuers battle bitter cold as quake toll tops 11,200 | Daily News

Rescuers battle bitter cold as quake toll tops 11,200

A man holds the hand of his 15-year-old daughter, who died in the earthquake.
A man holds the hand of his 15-year-old daughter, who died in the earthquake.

TURKEY: Heartrending scenes of a newborn plucked alive from the rubble and a broken father clutching his dead daughter’s hand have laid bare the human cost of the earthquake in Syria and Turkey that by Wednesday had claimed over 11,200 lives.

For two days and nights since the 7.8 magnitude quake an impromptu army of rescuers have worked in freezing temperatures to find those still entombed among ruins in several cities either side of the border.

Officials and medics said 8,574 people had died in Turkey and 2,662 in Syria from Monday’s 7.8-magnitude tremor, bringing the total to 11,236.

The World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that time is running out for the thousands injured and those still feared trapped.

For Mesut Hancer, a resident of the Turkish city Kahramanmaras, near the epicentre, it is already too late. He sat on the freezing rubble, too grief-stricken to speak, refusing to let go of his 15-year-old daughter Irmak’s hand as her body lay lifeless among the slabs of concrete and strands of twisted rebar.

Even for survivors, the future seems bleak.

Many have taken refuge from relentless aftershocks, cold rain and snow in mosques, schools and even bus shelters -- burning debris to try to stay warm. Frustration is growing that help has been slow to arrive.

“I can’t get my brother back from the ruins. I can’t get my nephew back. Look around here. There is no state official here, for God’s sake,” said Ali Sagiroglu in Kahramanmaras.

“For two days we haven’t seen the state around here... Children are freezing from the cold,” he said.

In nearby Gaziantep, shops were closed, there was no heat because gas lines have been cut to avoid explosions, and finding petrol was tough.

- NDTV

 


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