A man staring at a collapsed building in Turkey's Islahiye where his sister is buried under the ruins on February 9, 2023. Photo: Rudaw
GAZIANTEP, Turkey - With her eyes glued at rescue teams working on a collapsed building in the town of Islahiye, Gaziantep, Khadija Khalil yearns for her ten immediate family members trapped beneath the rubble as they have not heard from them since Monday, the day Turkey was rocked by a destructive 7.8 magnitude earthquake.
"My father, mother, brother, his wife and two of their children, my eldest brother, his wife and two of their children, all are under the rubble," Khalil told Rudaw on Thursday while sobbing.
"They are 10 people," she sighed. "We have not heard of any of them for the past three days. We cannot reach out to them at all."
A railway border crossing into Syria, Islahiye is a town and district of Gaziantep Province in southeastern Turkey. It is one of the areas where only a small number of buildings have remained intact.
Hours after the quake, Mustafa Uz Turk received a phone call from her sister pleading for rescue saying they were alive along with some other people. Turk has not heard of his sister ever since.
"She turned on her phone. We heard her saying there are people under the rubble. Two to three days have passed since," the distraught brother sitting by a bulldozer told Rudaw while watching piles of rubble under which his sister is buried. "God willing, they will be uncovered alive. We cannot do anything at this point."
At least 14,351 people have been killed in Turkey as of Wednesday afternoon by a devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the country, according to the country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD).
The number of injuries also rose to 63,794, according to the agency.
AFAD said they have over 115,000 personnel working on rescue missions across the country. However, residents of several cities have decried the lack of immediate response and aid from the relevant authorities.
Seventy countries including Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, as well as 14 international humanitarian and aid organizations, are involved in processes to assist the affected people and a major campaign to uncover survivors trapped underneath collapsed buildings across ten provinces.
The natural disaster has galvanized countries from around the world to come to the aid of the mourning country, providing rescue teams, monetary support, as well as relief and medical supplies.
"My father, mother, brother, his wife and two of their children, my eldest brother, his wife and two of their children, all are under the rubble," Khalil told Rudaw on Thursday while sobbing.
"They are 10 people," she sighed. "We have not heard of any of them for the past three days. We cannot reach out to them at all."
A railway border crossing into Syria, Islahiye is a town and district of Gaziantep Province in southeastern Turkey. It is one of the areas where only a small number of buildings have remained intact.
Hours after the quake, Mustafa Uz Turk received a phone call from her sister pleading for rescue saying they were alive along with some other people. Turk has not heard of his sister ever since.
"She turned on her phone. We heard her saying there are people under the rubble. Two to three days have passed since," the distraught brother sitting by a bulldozer told Rudaw while watching piles of rubble under which his sister is buried. "God willing, they will be uncovered alive. We cannot do anything at this point."
At least 14,351 people have been killed in Turkey as of Wednesday afternoon by a devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the country, according to the country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD).
The number of injuries also rose to 63,794, according to the agency.
AFAD said they have over 115,000 personnel working on rescue missions across the country. However, residents of several cities have decried the lack of immediate response and aid from the relevant authorities.
Seventy countries including Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, as well as 14 international humanitarian and aid organizations, are involved in processes to assist the affected people and a major campaign to uncover survivors trapped underneath collapsed buildings across ten provinces.
The natural disaster has galvanized countries from around the world to come to the aid of the mourning country, providing rescue teams, monetary support, as well as relief and medical supplies.
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