They had been missing since February 6, when the terrible earthquake has devastated the Syria and the Turkey, causing over 25 miles dead and millions displaced. Now the Italian family, composed of six people, three of whom are minors, residing in Milan but of Syrian origin, was found lifeless under the collapsed buildings in Antioch, in the south of the Turkish country, one of the areas most affected by the earthquake. To give the news of the discovery of the first Italian victims was Antonio Tajani. In a tweet published on the morning of February 11, the foreign minister expressed closeness to the families of the missing compatriots, who, he assured, will not lack the support of the institutions.
Meanwhile we continue to dig through the rubble of destroyed cities. The hours pass and with them also the hopes of finding some missing people still alive, more than 130 hours after the earthquake. Yet, among the bad news that continues to arrive from the affected areas there are also some victories achieved by the rescuers: in the Turkish province of Hatay a newborn Of two months, survived for 128 ore under the ruins, and one girl Of two yearsgot trapped for 122 ore under the remains of the house where he lived with his family.
But the stories of hope coming from the Turkish-Syrian border are less and less. They are suffocated by the numbers, constantly updated, which describe the disaster experienced by the local populations. According to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoganwho spoke in the city of Sanliurfa, i dead in Turkey are, for the moment, 21.848. Beyond 80 thousand i wounded it’s almost 7 miles The building destroyed. In Syriaon the other hand, in the areas from which it is possible to draw verified information, they have been counted 3.553 deathsbut the number could be much higher.
According to the UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, the figures, in fact, are set to double: “There are all kinds of rumors out there about how this could end and I think it’s really difficult to estimate very precisely because we still have to dig under the rubble. But I’m sure the budget of the dead will double or more,” he declared during a speech at Sky News the UN emergency relief coordinator, who is located in the Turkish province of Kahramanmaras. “This is terrifying but there has also been an extraordinary response to this earthquake, the most disastrous of the last 100 years“, he concluded. The enormity of the catastrophe is well represented by what is happening in Nurdagi, in Turkey, or as Afrin, in Syria, where the rescuers do not have time to bury the corpses that end piled up on trucks and in is nameless.
The emergency teams continue to work tirelessly but the Turkish population accuses the Erdogan presidency of not having intervened suddenly after the tremors. This was admitted by the leader of Ankara, visiting the disaster areas, promising, however, a change of gear: “Rescue operations are not proceeding as fast as hoped. But now we have gathered maybe therea larger research team and rescue of the world composed by 141.000 people engaged in the ten provinces affected”.