Turkey decided on Sunday to end the search efforts 14 days after the February 6 earthquakeexcept in the two most affected provinces, announced the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).
“In many of our provinces, search and rescue has been completed. Work continues in Kahramanmaras and Hatay provinces,” agency director Yunus Sezer told reporters in Ankara.
The magnitude 7.8 earthquake left more than 40,000 dead in Turkey and neighboring Syria, according to the latest balance released this Sunday by AFAD.
No survivors have been found in the ruins for more than 24 hours.
On Saturday, 296 hours after the earthquake, a couple was rescued in Antakya, the capital of Hatay province.
In the past three days, seven people have been pulled alive from the rubble, all of them in antakyaincluding the couple’s son, who died shortly after being rescued.
In Kahramanmaras province, where the epicenter of the earthquake was located, the chances of survival seemed slimmer than in Hatay due to the cold, which reached -15°C at night in snowy areas such as Elbistan, the teams found. from AFP.
Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay reported that 105,000 buildings collapsed or were badly damaged, so they will be razed.
Since the catastrophe, more than 6,000 aftershocks have been registered, including one of magnitude 6.6 and forty of intensity between 5 and 6, according to the relief agency.
In a message posted on Twitter, AFAD asked victims not to try to enter damaged homes to recover property, “not even briefly.”
He also announced that “requests for housing assistance” have already been opened for those who have lost their homes.
The authorities have not reported the number of people left homeless after the quake.
the turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan It said on Tuesday that more than 2 million people had evacuated the affected provinces by their own means.
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