Syria earthquake: Child pulled from rubble of collapsed building
Victims of the massive earthquakes which wrought utter devastation in Turkey and Syria have expressed anger over the government response – as Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the tremor’s epicentre.
More than 11,000 people have so far been reported dead in the two countries, with three times that number injured, according to authorities – making it the world’s deadliest seismic event since the 2011 tsunami which killed nearly 20,000 people.
The search for survivors has been impeded by sub-zero temperatures and close to 200 aftershocks, which made the search through unstable structures perilous.
Rescuers have warned that “time is running out” in the search for survivors, with UK-based Muslim charity SKT Welfare warning that “people are losing that window where they might still survive if they are stuck under the rubble”.
Rescuers “on the ground right now are unfortunately pulling dead bodies from the rubble”, she said, warning that hospitals in northern Syria are “running out of fuel and electricity, they need diesel to run the generators, they need painkillers, antibiotics, all the medication”.
