Toll hits 44,000 as soccer star dies
aNkaRa: The body of Ghanaian international soccer player Christian Atsu has been found in the rubble of his destroyed home, almost two weeks after the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria as the death toll rose to more than 44,000.
There were initial reports the former Chelsea and Newcastle player had been rescued a day after the quake, but these turned out to be false.
His manager Murat Uzunmehmet said the 31-year-old’s body had been found under his 12-storey block of luxury flats that crumbled in the Turkish province of Hatay.
The number of people found alive under the rubble have dropped to only a handful in recent days and the head of Turkey’s disaster agency, Yunus Sezer, said rescue operations would be “largely completed” by yesterday.
Three people were found alive on Saturday in Antakya, but one of them, a 12year-old, later died.
A man and a woman were placed on stretchers after the couple and their child spent 296 hours under the rubble.
Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca shared a video of the 40-year-old mother in a field hospital receiving treatment. “She is conscious,” he tweeted. Rescues that were initially met with applause and relief, have in recent days been greeted more soberly.
Officials and medics said that 40,642 people had died in Turkey and 3,688 in Syria from the quake, bringing the confirmed total to 44,330. The toll from Syria has remained unchanged for days.
The disaster has put pressure on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the slow response to the quake and why his government allowed such poor-quality buildings to be erected after official promises to strengthen regulations following the 1999 quake which killed more than 17,000.
Atsu’s 2013-built block toppled over, causing outrage over how a new building was unable to withstand a quake.
The building’s contractor has since been arrested as he tried to flee the country.