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Shocking aerial photos captured over Turkey show buildings collapsed to the ground and barely-standing structures after earthquakes shook the country and killed at least 33,000.
Two substantial tremors, each with a magnitude of well over seven, demolished tens of thousands of buildings throughout Turkey early on Monday, leaving thousands dead in the south and in Syria’s northeast.Â
Photos taken today revealed that mounds of debris has covered the streets of Hatay, a hard-hit Turkish city located close to the centre of the quakes.Â
Rescue crews are scouring piles of concrete and metal for trapped survivors, demanding silence as they sift through the rubble with thermal cameras.
The rescuers reported finding more survivors, but the death toll expected to rise as the rubble of thousands of buildings has yet to be cleared.
Two substantial tremors, each with a magnitude of well over seven, demolished tens of thousands of buildings throughout Turkey
The UN announced that war-torn regions of Syria were facing a failure to get desperately needed aid
The death toll is set to keep rising as the rubble of thousands of buildings has yet to be cleared
In hard-hit Hata, a 50-year-old woman who appeared badly injured was carried out by crews in the town of Iskenderun.Â
Similar rescues in the province saved two other women, one of them pregnant, according to broadcasters TRT and HaberTurk.
HaberTurk showed a 6-year-old boy rescued from his wrecked home in Adiyaman.Â
An exhausted rescuer removed his surgical mask and took deep breaths as a group of women cried in joy.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca posted a video of a young girl in a navy blue jumper who was found alive. He Tweeted: ‘There is always hope!’
Rescuers in Antakya, elsewhere in Hatay province, pulled a man in his late 20s or 30s from the rubble, saying he was one of nine still trapped in the building.Â
But when asked if he knew of any others, he said he hadn’t heard anyone for three days.Â
He waved weakly as he was removed on a stretcher as workers applauded and chanted, ‘God is great!’
Security concerns prompted the suspension of some rescue operations, and dozens of people have been arrested for looting or trying to defraud earthquake victims
The UN’s relief chief Martin Griffiths said much more was needed for millions whose homes were destroyed
The damage photos come as the United Nations (UN) has announced that war-torn regions of Syria were facing a failure to get desperately needed aid, despite a convoy arriving with supplies.Â
The agency’s relief chief Martin Griffiths said much more was needed for millions whose homes were destroyed.
‘We have so far failed the people in northwest Syria. They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn’t arrived,’ Griffiths said on Twitter.
The UN convoy of ten trucks crossed into northwest Syria included shelter kits including plastic sheeting, ropes and screws and nails, as well as blankets, mattresses and carpets.
Assessing damage in southern Turkey yesterday, when the toll stood at 28,000, Griffiths said he expected the figure to ‘double or more’ as chances of finding survivors fade with every passing day.Â
Supplies have been slow to arrive in Syria, where years of conflict have ravaged the healthcare system, and parts of the country remain under the control of rebels battling the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which is under Western sanctions.
Search and rescue efforts continue on collapsed buildings in Adiyaman, Turkey today after 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes hit multiple provinces of the country
Crews are pictured in Adiyaman, Turkey today as they look for survivors trapped under debris
Search and rescue crews searched collapsed buildings in Adiyaman today
But a 10-truck UN convoy crossed into northwest Syria via the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, carrying shelter kits, plastic sheeting, rope, blankets, mattresses and carpets.
Bab al-Hawa is the only point for international aid to reach people in rebel-held areas of Syria after nearly 12 years of civil war, after other crossings were closed under pressure from China and Russia.
The head of the World Health Organization met Assad in Damascus earlier today and said the Syrian leader had voiced readiness for more border crossings to help bring aid into the rebel-held northwest.
‘He was open to considering additional cross-border access points for this emergency,’ WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
‘The compounding crises of conflict, Covid, cholera, economic decline and now the earthquake have taken an unbearable toll,’ Tedros said a day after visiting Aleppo.
He added that he was ‘waiting to move across lines to the northwest, where we’ve been told the impact is even worse’.
But while Damascus had given the all-clear for cross-line aid convoys to go ahead from government areas, Tedros said the WHO was still waiting for a green light from rebel-held areas before going in.
Thousands of rescue workers are continuing the search for survivors nearly a week after a massive earthquake hit Turkey and Syria
A woman holds photos of her missing grandchildren Hatay, Turkey
Relatives identified a body in Turkey’s Kahramanmaras as the search continues in the aftermath of the earthquake
Bashar Hafez al-Assad, President of Syria, today thanked the United Arab Emirates for providing ‘huge relief and humanitarian aid’ with pledges of tens of millions of dollars in aid as well.
However, security concerns prompted the suspension of some rescue operations, and dozens of people have been arrested for looting or trying to defraud victims in the aftermath of the quake in Turkey, according to state media.
An Israeli emergency relief organisation said it had suspended its earthquake rescue operation in Turkey and returned home because of a ‘significant’ security threat to its staff.
It was also reported that a number of people were deprived of their livelihoods and were cast onto the street to survive the bitter cold when faced with a lack of resources.
Quake victims were forced to break into supermarkets and loot for food and shelter, lest they succumb to the sub-zero temperatures with no supplies.
However, in Antakya, residents and aid workers who came from other cities have claimed worsening security conditions, with widespread accounts of businesses and collapsed homes being looted.
The United Nations warned that at least 870,000 people urgently need hot meals across Turkey and Syria
A boy searching building rubble for items to salvage in Jableh as the destruction continues to ruin the lives of millions
Officials say 12,141 buildings were either destroyed or seriously damaged in the earthquake
Some residents who were left homeless by the earthquake and are now sleeping in their cars and tents have claimed their valuable belongings, including gold, have been stolen.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said today that 57 people had been arrested for looting.
President Tayyip Erdogan said the government would deal firmly with looters, with a state of emergency being declared.
The military and police presence in Antakya has increased in recent days after Erdogan declared a state of emergency.
Yuksel Uzun, the owner of an electronics store, said: ‘Our shop is in ruins. Swindlers and thieves have (looted) it. They took what they could. We are left with what they left behind’.
He said the looters couldn’t enter from the front of the store, which was protected, and had gained access to the storage space from the back.
Uzun said he had seen supermarkets, pharmacies and various other businesses being broken into.
‘They looted everywhere. The market across the street, shoe stores… I saw them break into a pharmacy,’ he said, adding he would store his merchandise outside the city.
Destroyed homes in Jindayris, in the rebel-held part of Syria’s Aleppo province, where the UN said sufficient aid had failed to arrive
A distraught woman mourns over the grave of her loved ones following the aftermath of the destructive earthquakeÂ
He said there were enough security forces in the city today but that there hadn’t been in the first few days after the quake.
‘Police and soldiers who live here went through the same things as we did. So we cannot expect them to have taken the necessary measures for the first couple of days,’ he said.
Berkan Yogurtcuoglu, the store manager, said it was normal to loot supermarkets in the first days because aid and supplies only arrived later.
‘For the first few days, everybody looted supermarkets because they needed to. I looted a supermarket because I needed diapers for my kids,’ he said.
The United Nations 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.
Officials say 12,141 buildings were either destroyed or seriously damaged in the earthquake.
It is said that 29,605 people had died in Turkey and 3,574 in Syria from last Monday’s 7.8-magnitude quake, bringing the confirmed total to 33,179.
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