fAlmost a week after the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria, the emergency services managed to rescue more survivors. According to Turkish media reports, the helpers managed to free a toddler and a teenager from the rubble on Sunday night. Meanwhile, the death toll rose to more than 30,000. In Turkey alone, the number is 29,605, the state news agency Anadolu reported on Sunday, citing the civil protection authority Afad. 3,775 deaths were recently reported from Syria. The federal government decided to allow surviving earthquake victims with relatives to enter Germany without any bureaucracy.
A video distributed by the Turkish news agency Anadolu on Twitter showed how helpers rescued a 13-year-old from the rubble in the city of Gaziantep at night. At the same time, a seven-month-old boy was recovered from the rubble in Hatay province, according to the IHA agency.
According to Turkish media reports, a two-year-old had also been rescued in Hatay. In the province of Kahramanmaras, rescue workers had rescued a 70-year-old woman alive from the rubble. Anadolu also reported on Saturday about the rescue of 35-year-old Özlem Yilmaz and her six-year-old daughter Hatice from a collapsed building in Adiyaman province.
Decreased chance of recovering survivors
A woman who was freed from the rubble by a German rescue team from the aid organization ISAR Germany on Friday died in a hospital on Saturday night. The relatives of the 40-year-old Zeynep had informed the emergency services about her death.
The chances of recovering survivors decreased as time went on. Turkish authorities set up makeshift morgues in parking garages, stadiums and gyms where desperate families searched for their dead loved ones.
Meanwhile, the confirmed death toll has risen to more than 28,000. According to the authorities, 24,617 fatalities were recovered in Turkey by Saturday. At least 3,574 people died on the other side of the border in Syria, according to official figures.
According to UN estimates, the death toll may rise to more than 50,000. UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths told Sky News on Saturday that the number of victims would “double or more” during a visit to the earthquake region in Turkey.
The World Health Organization (WHO) assumes that 26 million people in Turkey and Syria could be affected by the disaster, including around five million people who are already considered to be particularly vulnerable. According to the UN, at least 870,000 people in both countries have to be provided with warm meals, and up to 5.3 million people could have become homeless in Syria alone.
Image: FAZ
According to the Turkish civil protection agency Afad, more than 32,000 people from Turkey are involved in search and rescue operations. There are also more than 8,200 international helpers.
Deteriorated security situation
Due to a deterioration in the security situation in the earthquake area in the province of Hatay, ISAR Germany and the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) suspended their operations on Saturday in coordination with Afad. Both organizations wanted to resume their work as soon as the situation was deemed safe again. The Austrian army had also suspended its rescue mission.
The federal government decided on Saturday to make it easier for surviving earthquake victims from Turkey and Syria to enter Germany with relatives and loved ones. The Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Foreign Office would make it possible for those affected to have “regular visas that are issued quickly and are valid for three months,” the Ministry of the Interior explained.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) said on Twitter that the Federal Foreign Office and the Interior Ministry had formed a task force that is now starting work. The aim is to “make visa procedures for those affected as unbureaucratic as possible”. For this purpose, the Federal Foreign Office has “reinforced staff and reallocated capacities” at the German diplomatic missions in Turkey.
