TURKEY MOURNS
INTOLERABLE GRIEF AND AMAZING RESCUES
kahramanmaras: Rescuers pulled a two-month-old baby and an elderly woman from the rubble of the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria, five days after the disaster which has left more than 28,000 dead.
But security concerns have led some aid operations to be suspended and 48 people have been arrested for looting or trying to defraud victims of the quake in Turkey.
Tens of thousands of rescue workers are still scouring through flattened neighbourhoods despite freezing weather that has deepened the misery of millions now in desperate need of aid.
In the midst of destruction and despair, miraculous tales of survival continue.
“Is the world there?” asked 70-year-old Menekse Tabak as she was pulled out from the concrete in the southern city of Kahramanmaras -- the epicentre of the 7.8-magnitude tremor -- to applause and cries praising God.
Rescuers also rejoiced when they retrieved Melisa Ulku, 24, from under a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras.
In the city of Antakya, a two-month-old baby was found alive 128 hours after the quake, while a two-year-old girl, a six-month pregnant woman, and a four-year-old and her father were among those also rescued.
In southern Turkey, families clutched each other in grief at a cotton field transformed into a cemetery, with an endless stream of bodies arriving for swift burial.
Compounding the anguish, the UN warned that at least 870,000 people urgently need hot meals across Turkey and Syria. In Syria alone, up to 5.3 million people may have been made homeless.
Almost 26 million people have been affected by the earthquake, the World Health Organization (WHO) said as it launched a flash appeal for $A62 million to cope with immediate, towering health needs.
It warned that dozens of hospitals had been damaged.
Turkey’s disaster agency said over 32,000 people from Turkish organisations are working on search and rescue efforts. In addition, there are 8,294 international rescuers.
Some clashes have also been reported and the UN rights office urged all actors in the affected area -- where Kurdish militants and Syrian rebels operate -- to allow humanitarian access.
Austrian soldiers and German rescue workers called off their searches for several hours on Saturday in southern Hatay, citing a difficult security situation amid firing between local groups.
The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, considered a terrorist group by Ankara and the West, has announced a temporary halt in fighting.
And a border crossing between Armenia and Turkey opened for the first time in 35 years to allow five trucks carrying food and water into the quake-hit region.
In Syria, where years of conflict have ravaged the healthcare system and parts of the country remain under the control of rebels, aid has been slow to arrive.
A flight full of emergency medical equipment flew into the quake-stricken city of Aleppo, but deliveries of aid to tense regional provinces have been postponed.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the Security Council to authorise the opening of new cross-border aid points between Turkey and Syria. Turkey said it was working on opening two new routes into rebel-held parts of Syria.