Major Updates: Death toll tops 45,000, three rescued after 11 days under Turkey rubble

Last updated on February 20th, 2023 at 05:39 am

The combined death toll from last week’s powerful earthquakes in Turkey and neighbouring Syria has crossed 45,000. In addition to killing tens of thousands of people in their sleep, the tremors have also left millions homeless and in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

The UN has launched an appeal for $1 billion in urgently required aid to help earthquake victims in Turkey, apart from an earlier appeal for nearly $400 million for Syrians.

Rescuers are continuing to find survivors, even after 11 days since the February 6 pre-dawn quake struck the two countries.

Nevertheless, amid the chaos, numerous other tragedies have started unfolding, including fresh fighting between government and rebel forces in Syria, and a deadly fire in Turkey that killed at least seven survivors.

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Major Updates

1. Search and rescue personnel pulled three people alive from under collapsed buildings on Friday in Turkey, including a man in the southern province of Hatay.

2. The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday launched a flash appeal for $84.5 million to respond to serious health needs in the quake-ravaged nations.

3. Mosques across the globe performed absentee funeral prayers for the dead in Turkey and neighbouring Syria, many of whom could not receive full burial rites owing to the enormity of the disaster.

4. The German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund has decided to auction off the “new special jerseys worn by all players on Sunday against Hertha BSC” to benefit survivors in southeast Turkey and northwest Syria.

5. After surviving last week’s quakes, five Syrian children and their parents were killed in a deadly house fire in central Turkey on Friday. The family had moved from the Nurdagi district of Gaziantep to the Konya region following the disaster. The house was a single-storey property with 14 people living there, said Konya’s chief public prosecutor’s office. The seven survivors of the incident are continuing their treatment.

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