Two women survive for days in earthquake rubble as death toll tops 24,150
Two women were found alive in Turkey after being buried in the wreckage of fallen houses for 122 hours following the region’s deadliest earthquake in 20 years, officials said on Saturday.
The death toll in southern Turkey and northwest Syria has surpassed 24,150 a day after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that authorities should have responded to Monday’s massive earthquake more quickly.
Images from the state news agency Anadolu showed one of the women, Menekse Tabak, 70, being swaddled in a blanket as she was being transported to an ambulance in Kahramanmaras.
The other was a 55-year-old man named Masallah Cicek who was rescued from a building’s rubble in Diyarbakir, the biggest city in southeast Turkey, according to the news agency.
In an effort that drew in 31,000 rescuers from throughout the affected region, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay informed reporters overnight that 67 people had been rescued from the wreckage in the previous 24 hours.
According to him, 1.05 million individuals who were made homeless by the earthquakes were huddled in makeshift shelters while about 80,000 people were receiving medical attention in hospitals.
By providing them with permanent home within a year, Oktay stated, “our main goal is to ensure that they return to a regular life and that they heal their anguish as quickly as possible.”
Questions over their response are growing for the authorities of both countries as many people are left without food during the harsh winter.
