The toll from the earthquake in Turkey and Syria exceeds 11,200 dead. World Health Organization officials estimate that the victims could be as many as 20,000. The wounded are 37,011. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes mea culpa on the rescue machine after there were criticisms of the slowness in reaching some of the affected areas. “Initially there were problems at the airports and on the roads, but today things are getting easier and tomorrow will be even easier,” Erdogan said as reported by international media. “We have mobilized all our resources – he added while visiting the places hit by the earthquake -. The state is doing its job”.
More than 298,000 people have been displaced from their homes by the earthquake, Syrian state media reported. The number appears to refer only to parts of Syria under government control, not to those controlled by other factions in the country’s north-west, which is closer to the epicenter of Monday’s quake.
NEW SAVES AND AMAZING STORIES
In earthquake-ravaged and frost-affected areas they still happen rescues that taste like a miracle and in many cases they concern children: an 18-month-old girl was pulled alive from the rubble more than 56 hours after the earthquake in the province of Kahramanmaras, in southern Turkey. An 8-year-old girl has been rescued after being trapped for 40 hours in Salqin, Syria. In Hatay, Turkey, an eight-year-old boy was rescued from rubble after about 52 hours.
Earthquake in Syria, little girl pulled alive from the rubble after 40 hours
ITALIAN FIREFIGHTERS IN ANTIOCH SPOT A BOY ALIVE
A boy buried in Antioch was identified alive after 48 hours by the USAR teams of the Italian firefighters. According to what is learned, the boy is under several collapsed attics. The operations to extract it are still ongoing and are particularly complex due to the instability of the rubble. “We are working on a seven-story building, which collapsed to just four meters in height of rubble. And in every collapsed building they tell us that there are families, especially children”. This was reported to ANSA by Dr. Cristiana Lupini, the team leader of the Usar team-special research unit of the Ares 118 of Lazio, on the phone from the outskirts of Antioch, where she is working in the search for survivors together with the firefighters.
ITALIAN IS STILL MISSING
The Italian Angelo Zen, 60, from Veneto, is still missing. “Except the entrepreneur Angelo Zen, all the Italians who were in the earthquake zones have been contacted, they are safe. Near the epicenter there were a few dozen compatriots, while in the area there were about 170, at least those who were registered on the app”. This was stated by the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Agorà on Rai 3.
ANSA agency
“There is only one Italian missing who we have not been able to contact. It is Angelo Zen, from the province of Vicenza, we are in constant contact with the family”. (HANDLE)
“My thoughts go at this moment to the populations of Turkey and Syria hard hit by the earthquake which caused thousands of deaths and injuries”. As dad at the end of the general hearing. “With emotion I pray for them and I express my closeness to these peoples, to the families of the victims and to all those who suffer from this devastating calamity – he added -. I thank all those who are making an effort to bring relief and I encourage everyone to show solidarity with those territories in part already tortured by a long war”.