Three British Nationals have been confirmed missing following the catastrophic earthquake which struck south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria yesterday morning.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly made a statement in the Commons confirming the trio are missing and a further 35 are affected. He did not specify whether or not they were in Turkey or Syria, the Mirror reports.
He stated: "We know that three British nationals are missing and the Foreign Office's Crisis Response Hub is working to support the at least 35 British nationals who have been directly affected by these earthquakes. We assess that the likelihood of large-scale British casualties remains low."
The earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 has killed more than 7,000 people as more than a day later bodies are continuing to be pulled out from under the rubble.
Updating the Commons on the UK response to the Turkey and Syria earthquake, Mr Cleverly revealed more than 6,000 buildings have collapsed and electricity and gas infrastructure has been severely damaged.
He said many of the 3.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey reside in the affected areas and that the country are asking for international assistance 'on a scale that matches the enormity of the situation that they are facing'.
Turkey’s disaster management agency said it had 11,342 reports of collapsed buildings, of which 5,775 had been confirmed. Relief worker Atiqur Rahman, the owner of Yahya's Indian Grill in Stoke-on-Trent was staying at the Diplomatic Office for Turkey as part of his work for the charity Global Relief Trust when the devastating earthquake hit.
Atiqur luckily escaped but one of his colleagues is still searching for her son who studies in the area. The 34-year-old from Burslem had crossed the border from Syria and is currently in the city of Antakya, Turkey.
He said: "I was here to do deployment work. We are trying to do what we can.
"It was 20 past four - the whole building shook. We managed to escape from the premises. One in three buildings has been totally knocked down."
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