Family rescued in Turkey as quake toll passes 25,000

Five members of a family were rescued from the rubble yesterday in a glimmer of light in the darkness enveloping Turkey and Syria where the death toll from the earthquake climbed above 25,000.

Rescuers in Turkey pulled the family from the rubble five days after the country’s most devastating quake since 1939. However, hopes were fading that many more survivors would be found.

Officials confirmed the disaster has cost the lives of 21,848 people in Turkey and 3,553 in Syria with the toll expected to climb further.

United Nations emergency relief co-ordinator Martin Griffiths described the earthquake as “the worst event in 100 years in this region” and said he expected tens of thousands more deaths to be confirmed.

He said: “I think it is difficult to estimate precisely as we need to get under the rubble but I’m sure it will double or more. That’s terrifying. This is nature striking back in a really harsh way.”

He added: “It’s deeply shocking the idea that these mountains of rubble still hold people, some of them still alive. We haven’t really begun to count the number of dead.”

Yesterday a family of five were pulled from the wreckage of their home in the town of Nurdag, in Gaziantep province, 129 hours after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit the region on Monday,

Rescuers first recovered mother and daughter Havva and Fatmagul Aslan, who had been trapped beneath the debris of their home.

They later reached the father, Hasan Aslan, but he insisted his other daughter, Zeynep, and son Saltik Bugra be saved first.

Despite fading hopes amid freezing temperatures, a total of nine people were rescued yesterday including a 70-year-old woman and a disoriented 16-year-old.

“What day is it?” asked Kamil Can Agas as he was pulled out of the rubble in Kahramanmaras.

The rescues brought some relief amid overwhelming devastation days after Monday’s earthquake destroyed thousands of buildings, killing more than 25,000 people, injuring another 80,000 and leaving millions without homes.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, more than five million people may be left homeless by the earthquake.

The Turkish government has distributed millions of hot meals, as well as tents and blankets, but is still struggling to reach many people in need.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, whose government has faced criticism about earthquake planning and a slow and inadequate response, yesterday admitted authorities should have reacted faster.

He promised to start work on rebuilding cities “within weeks”, saying hundreds of thousands of buildings were now uninhabitable.

© NECATI SAVAS/EPA-EFE/Shutterstoc

In the Turkish city of Antakya, residents and rescue workers said they had witnessed looting.

On a visit to the disaster zone yesterday, Erdogan warned the government would take action against anyone involved in looting

Questions have also been asked about the soundness of buildings in the earthquake zone.

State prosecutors in Kahramanmaras said they will investigate the collapse of buildings and any irregularities in their construction.

Police detained a contractor, who built a 12-storey upmarket apartment block that collapsed in Hatay, as he waited to board a plane in Istanbul.

Turkey’s foreign affairs ministry said 99 countries have offered assistance, with teams from 68 countries and 8,326 foreign personnel on the ground.

However, German aid organisations suspended rescue operations in Turkey yesterday, citing security problems and reports of clashes between groups of people and gunfire.

An Austrian rescue team also suspended but then resumed operations over the security situation in the region after being given the protection of the Turkish army.

Relief efforts in Syria have been complicated by a 12-year-old civil war, and the people have received very little aid despite a pledge from Damascus to improve access.

Rescuers in opposition-held areas have crticised the United Nations and the international community for not responding quickly enough to the urgent needs there.