Death toll in Turkey and Syria earthquake surpasses 43,000

Residents wait in a queue outside a bakery that gives out free bread in Samandag, Turkey Thursday. PIC/AFP

International aid agencies are stepping up efforts to help millions of homeless people, many sleeping in tents, mosques, schools or cars, 11 days after a massive earthquake hit Turkey and Syria killing more than 43,000. People were reported to have been pulled alive from the rubble in Turkey on Thursday, but such rescues have become increasingly rare, leaving anger to smoulder as hope dies.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck in the dead of night on Feb. 6. More than 10 days after it struck, rescuers overnight pulled out a child, a woman and two men alive from wreckage. Neslihan Kilic, a 29-year-old mother of two, was removed from the rubble of a building in Kahramanmaras, after being trapped for 258 hours when a forklift operator lifted her bed and noticed her hand move, the private DHA news agency reported late Thursday. Her father, Cuma Yalcinoz, had been waiting outside. "I believed she would come out," he said. "I had a feeling." Kilic's husband and children were still missing.

Also Read: Turkey eyes post-quake reconstruction, while Syrian people seek more aid

In the city of Antakya, police rescue crews found 12-year-old Osman alive after retrieving 17 bodies from a collapsed building. "Just when our hopes were over, we reached our brother Osman at the 260th hour," police rescue team leader Okan Tosun told DHA. An hour later, crews reached two men inside a collapsed hospital in Antakya. One of them, Mustafa Avci, used the mobile phone of a rescuer to call his brother and ask about family members. "Have they all survived? he asked. "Let me hear their voices."

The quake killed at least 38,044 people in southern Turkey, officials said on Friday, while authorities in neighbouring Syria have reported 5,800 deaths - a figure that has changed little in days. The UN on Thursday appealed for more than $1 billion in funds for the Turkish relief operation, after launching a $400 million appeal for Syrians.

38,044
No. of people killed in Turkey

5,800
No. of people killed in Syria

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