The race once morest time and cold continued all night in Turkey and northern Syria to extricate survivors of the violent earthquakes that ravaged the region on Monday, leaving several thousand dead.
According to the latest official report – which is likely to get heavier – nearly twenty hours following the first of the three tremors, with a magnitude of 7.8 felt as far away as Lebanon, Cyprus and northern Iraq, more than 4,300 people have died, including 2,921 in Turkey according to the public disaster management body (Afad) and more than 1,440 in Syria.
Rescuers fought hard in the cold, in the pouring rain or snow, sometimes with their bare hands, to save every life that might be, like this seven-year-old child who came out of the ruins in Hatay (south), on the border Syrian, under the eyes of AFP, following more than 20 hours of terror, the pajamas stained with dust.
The bad weather that hangs over Anatolia complicates the task of rescue and makes the fate of the survivors even more bitter, shivering in tents or around improvised braziers.
– First international aid –
International aid to Turkey should, however, begin to arrive on Tuesday with the first teams of rescuers, from France and Qatar in particular. US President Joe Biden has promised his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan “all the help needed, whatever it is”.
The French planned to go in particular to Kahramanmaras, epicenter of the first earthquake, a region difficult to access and deeply bruised buried under the snow.
Two American detachments of 79 rescue workers each were preparing to go there on Monday, according to the White House.
According to the Turkish president, 45 countries have offered their help.
On the other hand, in Syria, the appeal launched by the authorities in Damascus was mainly heard by its Russian ally, promising rescue teams “in the next few hours”, while according to the army, more than 300 Russian soldiers are already on the ground. places to assist with rescue.
The UN also reacted, but insisted that the aid provided would go “to all Syrians throughout the territory”, part of which is not under government control.
In these rebel-held areas, bordering Turkey in northwestern Syria, at least 700 dead have been counted.
Taking advantage of the chaos created by the earthquake, around 20 suspected fighters from the Islamic State (IS) group escaped from a military prison in Rajo, controlled by pro-Turkish rebels.
The balance sheets on both sides of the border have continued to increase and given the extent of the damage they were to increase as the search progressed.
In Turkey alone, the authorities have counted nearly five thousand collapsed buildings. And the drastic drop in temperatures puts the wounded, stuck in the ruins, at an additional risk of hypothermia.
– Dormitories –
The World Health Organization has said itself that it expects the worst and fears “tolls eight times higher than the initial numbers”.
During the day on Monday, no less than 185 followingshocks were recorded, following the first two shocks: one of 7.8 which occurred in the middle of the night (04:17 local time), the other, of magnitude 7.5, at midday, the two in southeastern Turkey.
Dormitories have been opened by local authorities in gymnasiums or colleges or even in mosques to accommodate survivors. But for fear of new earthquakes, many residents preferred to spend the night outside, as in Sanliurfa, in southeastern Turkey.
“Who is not afraid? Everyone is afraid!”, assured Mustafa Koyuncu, 55, crammed with his wife and five children into the family car.
This earthquake is the largest in Turkey since the earthquake of August 17, 1999, which caused the death of 17,000 people, including a thousand in Istanbul.
The Turkish head of state has declared national mourning for seven days and the closure of schools for the week.
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