Yesterday, the disaster management authorities in Turkey announced that rescue teams had pulled dozens of people from the rubble of buildings collapsed due to the strong earthquake that struck the east of the country, while the death toll rose to 36. Rescuers, who were working at temperatures below zero, used their hands and mechanical excavators to continue searching for survivors at three sites in the Azazig region, where the 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck on Friday evening.
The Disaster and Emergency Management stated that the earthquake, which was followed by more than 700 aftershocks, killed 32 people in Alazig and four in the neighboring province of Malatya, and more than 1,600 people were injured due to the earthquake in the provinces of Alazig, Malatya, Diyarbakir, Adiyaman, Batman, and Qahraman Marash, Shanli Urfa.
Television stations broadcast footage showing a 35-year-old woman and her baby girl as they were being rescued from the rubble in Mustafa Pasha district of Alazig, some 550 kilometers east of the capital, Ankara. Official media reported that the rescuers' arrival to them came after hearing their cry, which lasted for several hours at temperatures up to four below zero, and the Disaster and Emergency Management said that search and rescue operations are still ongoing in three different locations in Alazig. The administration warned the residents not to return to the damaged buildings because they might collapse, and said that officials have determined that there are about 645 installations that were severely damaged, in addition to the collapse of 76 buildings.
- 1,600 injured and collapsed, 76 buildings and 645 facilities that were severely damaged by the earthquake.