Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/ANTAKYA/KAHRAMANMARAS: More than 45,000 people have been killed in the earthquake that hit Syria and Turkiye, and the death toll continues to soar, as some 264,000 apartments in Turkiye destroyed and many are still missing in the worst disaster in the country.
Eleven days after the quake hit, three survivors were dug out from the rubble in Turkiye on Friday.
Death toll continues to rise
The death toll in Turkiye has reached 39,672, while neighbouring Syria has reported more than 5,800 deaths. The death toll has not changed for days in Syria.
Mosques globally on Friday performed absentee funeral prayers for the dead in Syria and Turkiye, many of whom could not receive full burial rites given the enormity of the natural disaster.
Experts believe that most rescues happen in the 24 hours after an earthquake. The local fire brigade said that Hakan Yasinoglu, in his 40s, was rescued in the Hatay after 278 hours.
Mustafa Avci, 34, and Osman Halebiye, 14, were saved in Turkiye’s historic Antakya, known in ancient times as Antioch. As Avci was carried away, he was on a video call with his family, who showed him his newborn baby boy.
“I had lost all hope; this is a miracle. I saw the wreckage, and I thought no one could be saved alive from there, but they gave me my son back,” his father said.
Most deaths have occurred in the northwest of neighbouring Syria, devastated by more than 10 years of civil conflict and now controlled by insurgents fighting President Bashar Assad. This dispute has made aiding those affected by the earthquake more difficult.
First fighting between the two sides since the disaster broke out overnight, with government forces bombing Atareb, a rebel-held town that was severely damaged by the earthquake, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Friday. Reuters could not independently confirm the report.
The United Nations on Thursday appealed for more than $1 billion in funds for the Turkish relief operation and has launched a $400 million appeal for Syrians.
