Rescue efforts winding down
Emergency workers in Turkey and Syria made a series of extraordinary rescues yesterday, pulling about half a dozen people out of collapsed buildings on either side of the border, even as hopes of finding more survivors after a pair of major earthquakes dimmed.
The people – including a married couple in Turkey’s Iskenderun, a newborn baby in Hatay, and a mother and her two adult children in the Syrian city of Jableh – were among the few who were able to hold on for more than four days after the temblors struck, in frigid temperatures and under the wreckage of their homes.
In Turkey, the scenes of survivors being carried out on stretchers provided rare moments of optimism amid the ever-expanding tragedy.
The death toll in both countries surpassed 23,000, the majority of whom perished in Turkey, with more than 80,000 injured, and many others still trapped or missing beneath the rubble.
In opposition-held Syria, the Syrian Civil Defence Forces, also known as the White Helmets, announced an end to search and rescue efforts. The group’s members – operating with far fewer resources than rescuers in Turkey – had been digging with their hands and basic construction tools across 40 towns and villages.
Their leader, Raed al-Saleh, blamed the international community for failing to mobilise and provide equipment he said could have saved more lives. He called for an
investigation into why foreign aid had arrived first in government-held areas.
Even before the quakes struck on Monday, 4.1 million people in northwest Syria required humanitarian assistance. Sivanka Dhanapala, the United Nations refugee agency’s representative in Syria, said as many as 5.3 million people across the country may have been left homeless by the disaster.
Fourteen trucks carrying UN assistance entered northwest Syria yesterday, the largest such
delivery in the aftermath of the temblors. The World Health Organisation also sent emergency health supplies to both Turkey and Syria.
Planes carrying supplies from Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Libya arrived at governmentcontrolled airports in Syria, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited government-held Aleppo with his wife, Asma, in his first public visit to the disaster zone since the quakes.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meanwhile, visited devastated regions in his country’s south, where he described the quakes as the ‘‘disaster of the century’’. Erdogan and his party have faced mounting criticism of the government’s response, as well as the apparent flouting of earthquake codes that caused thousands of buildings to crumple when the tremors hit.
The United States military also began deploying forces to assist with earthquake relief in Turkey.
US financial aid had also been allocated to relief efforts in Syria, in both governmentcontrolled and rebel-held parts of the country, through ‘‘partner organisations’’, said Jeffry L Flake, the US ambassador to Turkey. It was unclear exactly how much of the US$85 million (NZ$134.7m) aid package would be allocated to Syria, which has been isolated because of its civil war as well as Western sanctions.
Two Australians have been killed and a third is feared dead in the devastating earthquake.
The remains of an Australian man and an Australian woman had been identified by family members in Turkey, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said yesterday.
The man has been identified as Melbourne grandfather Suat Bayram, but the name of the woman has not been made public. ‘‘We lost our beloved father and grandfather,’’ Bayram’s relative Ebru Hudaverdi posted to social media.
Earlier in the week, the body of Sydney man Can Pahali was reported to have been found, but his death has yet to be confirmed by local authorities.
The department is assisting the families of all three people.
About 80 Australians who were in the area affected by the earthquake are now receiving assistance from Australia in Turkey and Lebanon.
More than 70 Australian emergency service personnel have flown to the earthquake zone to help with rescue and recovery efforts.