A man holds the hand of his 15-year-old daughter who died in the earthquake.
Antakya, Turkey:
Heartbreaking scenes of a newborn baby being pulled alive from the rubble and a heartbroken father clutching his dead daughter have exposed the human cost of the earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey, claiming more than 11,200 lives as of Wednesday. More people had lost their lives.
For two days and nights since the 7.8-magnitude quake struck, an urgent army of rescuers worked in freezing temperatures to find people still trapped in ruins in several towns on both sides of the border.
Still many people are feared to be buried under the debris.
Authorities and medics said Monday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed 8,574 people in Turkey and 2,662 in Syria, bringing the total to 11,236.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that time was running out for thousands of injured and still trapped.
Rescue efforts are on since Monday.
It is already too late for Mesut Hansar, a resident of the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, near the epicenter.
He sat on the cold rubble, too grief-stricken to speak, refusing to let go of his 15-year-old daughter Irmak’s hand as her body lay lifeless between concrete slabs and bent beams.
‘The kids are cold’
Even for the survivors, the future looks bleak.
Many have taken refuge from the persistent aftershocks, freezing rain and snow in mosques, schools and even bus shelters – burning debris to try to stay warm.
Frustration is mounting that help is being delayed.
“I can’t bring my brother back from the ruins. I can’t bring my nephew back. Look around. For God’s sake, there is no state official here,” said Ali Sagiroglu in Kahramanmaras.
“For two days we haven’t seen the situation around here…the children are freezing cold,” he said.
In nearby Gaziantep, shops were closed, there was no heat as gas lines had been cut to avoid explosions, and petrol was hard to find.
Freezing temperatures made conditions worse for survivors seeking shelter.
Sixty-one-year-old resident Celal Deniz said police had to intervene when an impatient crowd waiting for rescuers “mutinied”.
About 100 other people slept wrapped in blankets in the lounge of the airport terminal, which usually welcomes Turkish politicians and celebrities.
Zahide Sutku, who went to the airport with her two young children, said, “We saw the buildings collapse, so we know we are lucky to be alive.”
“But there is so much uncertainty in our lives now. How am I going to take care of these kids?”
Across the border in northern Syria, a decade of civil war and Syrian-Russian aerial bombardment had already destroyed hospitals, collapsed the economy and fueled power, fuel and water shortages.
The death toll from the disaster is still rising.
In the rebel-controlled city of Jindayaris, the joy of rescuing a newborn child was also shrouded in sadness.
She was still tied to her mother who was killed in the disaster.
“We heard a sound while we were digging,” Khalil al-Suwadi, a relative, told AFP.
“We cleared the dust and found the baby with the umbilical cord (intact), so we cut it and my cousins took it to the hospital.”
The infant faces a difficult future as the sole survivor among his immediate family. The rest were buried together in a mass grave on Tuesday.
international response
Dozens of countries have pledged help, including the United States, China and Gulf states, and relief supplies have begun to arrive by air, along with search teams.
A winter storm has added to the misery by rendering many roads – some of them damaged by earthquakes – almost impassable, resulting in traffic jams that stretch for kilometers in some areas.
The World Health Organization has warned that the massive quake could affect 23 million people and urged countries in the disaster zone to help.
The Syrian Red Crescent appealed to Western countries to lift sanctions and provide aid as President Bashar al-Assad’s government remains a pariah in the West, complicating international relief efforts.
Western sanctions have complicated international aid.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States would not work with the Damascus government.
“This money, of course, goes to the Syrian people – not to the regime. It will not change,” he said.
Aid agencies have also asked the Syrian government to allow the reopening of border crossings to bring help into rebel-held areas.
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 magnitude 7.4 earthquake killed over 17,000 people.
Experts have long warned that a major earthquake could devastate Istanbul, a megalopolis of 16 million people filled with dilapidated homes.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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