Thinly-stretched rescue teams on Wednesday continued searching for survivors buried in the rubble of thousands of buildings destroyed in Turkey and Syria by catastrophic earthquakes and aftershocks that killed over 11,000.
Amid calls for the Turkish government to send more help to the disaster zone, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited a "tent city" in Kahramanmaras, where people forced from their homes are living. He conceded shortfalls early in Turkey's disaster response but vowed that no one would "be left in the streets."
Turkey now has tens of thousands of aid personnel in the quake zone, and search teams from more than two dozen countries have joined them. But with the devastation so widespread, many are still waiting for help, and hope of rescuing survivors is fading.
https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2023/02/08/423d2072-381f-4e35-a5f2-c626b845246e/thumbnail/620x413/41f55589c7b978f4f503ec9d475da248/gettyimages-1246861640.jpg Mesut Hancer holds the hand of his 15-year-old daughter Irmak, who died in the earthquake in Kahramanmaras, close to the quake's epicentre, the day after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country's southeast, on February 7, 2023. ADEM ALTAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Experts said the survival window for those trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings or otherwise unable to access water, food, protection from the elements or medical attention was closing rapidly. At the same time, they said it was too soon to abandon hope for more rescues.
Turkey's disaster management agency said Wednesday that the recovered bodies of people who died in the earthquakes but cannot be identified would be buried within five days even if they remained unnamed. The agency, known as AFAD, said unidentified victims would be buried following DNA tests, finger printing and after being photographed for future identification. The move is in line with Islamic funeral rites, which require a burial to take place as quickly as possible after a person's death.
In the Turkish city of Malatya, bodies were placed side by side on the ground, covered in blankets, while rescuers waited for funeral vehicles to pick them up, according to former journalist Ozel Pikal, who saw eight bodies pulled from the ruins of building.
As many as 23 million people could be affected in the quake-hit region, according to Adelheid Marschang, a senior emergencies officer with the World Health Organization, who called it a "crisis on top of multiple crises."
