Death toll hits 5300 in Turkey Syria earthquake

More search teams and emergency aid from around the world poured into Turkey and Syria yesterday as rescuers working in freezing temperatures dug sometimes with their bare hands through the remains of buildings flattened by a powerful earthquake.
According to official figures, the death toll soared above 5300 and was still expected to rise.

However, Nigeria’s Ambassador to the Republic of Turkey, Ismail Yusuf, said yesterday that no Nigerian is recorded among casualties of the earthquake that hit some cities in Turkey.

According to him, the Embassy is on alert to know the state of every registered Nigerian in the country.

Erdogan said the earthquake was the worst disaster the country had experienced in 84 years.

Yusuf said rescue efforts were ongoing and there had been no report of any Nigerian casualty living in the affected region as at the time of speaking to NAN.

But, with the damage spread over a wide area, the massive relief operation often struggled to reach devastated towns, and voices that had been crying out from the rubble fell silent.

In the end, it was left to Silo, a Syrian who arrived from Hama a decade ago, and other residents to recover the bodies and those of two other victims.

Monday’s magnitude 7.8 quake and a cascade of strong aftershocks cut a swath of destruction that stretched hundreds of kilometres across southeastern Turkey and neighbouring Syria, toppling thousands of buildings and heaping more misery on a region shaped by Syria’s 12-year civil war and refugee crisis.