Miracle rescues, arrests, looting as Türkiye-Syria quake deaths surpass 28,000
Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye - Rescuers pulled a two-month-old baby and an elderly woman from the rubble on Saturday, five days after an earthquake devastated Türkiye and Syria leaving more than 28,000 dead.
But security concerns led some aid operations to be suspended, and at least 48 people have been arrested for looting or trying to defraud victims in the aftermath of the quake in Türkiye, state media reported.
Tens of thousands of rescue workers are still scouring through flattened neighbourhoods despite freezing weather that has deepened the misery of millions now in desperate need of aid.
In the midst of destruction and despair, miraculous tales of survival continue to emerge.
"Is the world there?" asked 70-year-old Menekse Tabak as she was pulled out from the concrete in the southern city of Kahramanmaraş – the epicentre of Monday's 7.8-magnitude tremor – to applause and cries praising God, according to a video on state broadcaster TRT Haber.
In the city of Antakya, a two-month-old baby was found alive 128 hours after the quake, state news agency Anadolu reported.
A two-year-old girl, a six-month pregnant woman, and a four-year-old and her father were among those rescued five days after the quake, Turkish media reported.
In southern Türkiye, families clutched each other in grief at a cotton field transformed into a cemetery, with an endless stream of bodies arriving for swift burial.
Compounding the anguish, the United Nations has warned that at least 870,000 people urgently need hot meals across Türkiye and Syria. In Syria alone, up to 5.3 million people may have been made homeless.
Almost 26 million people have been affected by the earthquake, the World Health Organization (WHO) said as it launched a flash appeal on Saturday for $42.8 million to cope with immediate, towering health needs.
It warned that dozens of hospitals had been damaged.
Türkiye's disaster agency said over 32,000 people from Turkish organisations are working on search and rescue efforts. In addition, there are 8,294 international rescuers.
In Türkiye's gourmet capital Gaziantep city, restaurants are working hard among tens of thousands of volunteers to help and feed families.
"We want to help," said Burhan Cagdas, owner of a local diner.
"Our co-workers are in a bad situation. Their families are victims and their houses are destroyed," said Cagdas.
His own family has been sleeping in cars since Monday in the city where at least 2,000 have died and tens of thousands have been forced out of unsafe homes.
Their Imam Cagdas restaurant is renowned for Alinazik aubergine and meat stew and they have served up to 4,000 free meals a day outdoors since the tragedy struck.
But some clashes have also been reported and the UN rights office on Friday urged all those in the affected area – where Kurdish militants and Syrian rebels operate – to allow humanitarian access.
Austrian soldiers and German rescue workers called off their searches for several hours on Saturday in southern Hatay, citing a difficult security situation amid firing between local groups.
The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, considered a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies, has announced a temporary halt in fighting to ease recovery work.
And a border crossing between Armenia and Türkiye opened for the first time in 35 years on Saturday to allow five trucks carrying food and water into the quake-hit region.
In Syria, where years of conflict have ravaged the health-care system and parts of the country remain under the control of rebels, aid has been slow to arrive.
The WHO's chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, took a flight full of emergency medical equipment into the quake-stricken city of Aleppo on Saturday.
Tedros toured damaged areas of the city tweeting: "I'm heartbroken to see the conditions survivors are facing – freezing weather and extremely limited access to shelter, food, water, heat and medical care".
Damascus said it had approved the delivery of humanitarian assistance to quake-hit areas outside its control in Idlib province and a convoy was expected to leave on Sunday – but the delivery was later postponed without explanation.
In the Syrian capital, the transport ministry said 57 aid planes had landed in the country this week.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged the Security Council to authorise the opening of new cross-border points between Türkiye and Syria. The council will meet to discuss Syria, possibly early this week.
Türkiye said it was working on opening two new routes into rebel-held parts of Syria.
Kurdish militants from the outlawed PKK group announced a temporary halt in fighting to facilitate rescue work in eastern Türkiye and parts of Syria.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and its main Western allies for waging a brutal insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1984.
But the earthquake disaster has reshaped the political landscape in Türkiye and Syria while claiming more than 22000 lives – more than 18 000 of them in Türkiye
The disaster struck a multi-ethnic region that has witnessed some of the heaviest fighting between Turkish government forces and the PKK.
The group’s co-leader, Cemil Bayik, told the PKK-linked ANF news agency that “thousands of our people are under the rubble” and urged a focus on recovery work rather than waging war.
In Türkiye, five days of grief and anguish have been slowly building into rage at the poor quality of buildings as well as the government's response to the country's worst disaster in nearly a century.
Officials in the country say 12,141 buildings were either destroyed or seriously damaged in the earthquake.
Turkish police on Saturday reportedly detained 12 people, including contractors, over collapsed buildings in the south-eastern provinces of Gaziantep and Sanliurfa, local media reported on Saturday.
Those taken into custody included contractors, DHA news agency said. At least 6,000 buildings collapsed after a 7.8-magnitude tremor hit the region, killing more than 25,000 people, sparking anger over the poor quality of housing.
There are expected to be more detentions after Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay told reporters late Saturday that prosecutors issued 113 arrest warrants over the buildings.
One of those detained Saturday was a contractor for a building in Gaziantep, the agency said, adding he was found by police in Istanbul.
Prosecutors have launched a wave of investigations in provinces impacted including Kahramanmaraş where Pazarcik district was at the epicentre of the quake.
Türkiye's justice ministry has ordered prosecutors in the 10 provinces to establish special "earthquake crimes investigation offices".
On Friday, Turkish police apprehended a contractor of a block of high-rise luxury block of apartments that toppled over in Hatay province. He was detained at Istanbul airport after reportedly trying to flee the country.
Officials and medics said 24,617 people had died in Türkiye and 3,574 in Syria. The confirmed total now stands at 28,191.
AFP