Monitoring Desk
BRUSSELS: Under the European Union’s (EU) emergency response mechanism, 27 rescue teams with over 1,150 staff have been sent to Turkiye in the wake of Monday’s powerful quake tremors, the EU commissioner for crisis management said.
“So far, we have mobilized 27 rescue, search, and medical teams from 19 European countries through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to help Turkiye after the powerful earthquake,” Janez Lenarcic wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. Turkiye is also a member of the mechanism.
The EU member states of Croatia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Spain, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Poland, and Romania all sent teams, along with Albania and Montenegro.
Lenarcic added that 1,150 personnel and 70 rescue dogs were sent.
Quake kill 3,381 people in Turkiye
At least 3,381 persons were killed and 20,426 others wounded in 10 provinces of Turkiye after two strong earthquakes on Monday shattered the southern part of the country, an official from Turkiye’s disaster agency said on Tuesday.
The earthquake tremors were also felt in several neighboring countries, including Syria and Lebanon.
Meanwhile, by the request of EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, the bloc’s diplomatic service’s conference on disinformation began on Tuesday with a minute of silence in honor of the losses in earthquakes that hit Turkiye and Syria.
Borrell started his speech by grieving for the “terrible calamity” in Turkiye and Syria at the European External Action Service conference.
