The death toll after the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria continues to rise, but among the horror of the last few hours there is also good news. As time passes it is more difficult to find survivors and each rescue is a joy, especially if it involves children. This Tuesday, two sisters remained under the rubble and, despite the fact that the rescue teams have taken about 17 hours, they have finally been able to get them out alive.
The images of the 7-year-old girl, who protected her little sister’s head with her arm throughout the entire time to prevent it from being crushed, have gone around the world. In a video you can hear the little girl asking for help from the rescuers, to whom she even offers herself as a slave if they help her get out of it, although in some translations she can be “friend”.
The video has shocked the entire world, which mourns the almost 10,000 dead that Turkey and Syria already add after the earthquake. Another 45,000 people have been injured, so the death toll is expected to rise.
Almost 700 new earthquakes
The Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), under the Turkish Ministry of the Interior, has indicated in a statement that so far the deaths of 7,108 people have been confirmed in the provinces of Kahramanmaras, Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Adana, Adiyaman, Osmaniye, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya and Elazig, while the total number of injured has been estimated at 40,910.
Likewise, it has specified that “after the first earthquake, another 648 have been registered, the largest being a magnitude 7.6 with an epicenter in Elbistan”, before confirming that more than 96,600 agents, workers of non-governmental organizations, search and rescue teams and volunteers. Turkey has also created an air bridge for the transfer of personnel and materials from Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.
In this context, the Government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan has created a Crisis Management Center in the Ministry of Defense to “confront this great disaster”, in order to transport personnel and the rescue team through an aid bridge aerial.
Own Erdogan will travel during the day to the area to supervise search and rescue work, according to Turkey’s Directorate of Communications. “President Erdogan will go to the area affected by the earthquakes to closely follow the work,” he stated in a brief message on his official account on the social network Twitter.
The Turkish president declared on Tuesday a state of emergency for three months in the ten provinces affected by the earthquakes. “We are facing one of the biggest disasters not only in the history of the Republic, but also of the region and the world,” he said.
For its part, the earthquake has left 1,250 dead and 2,054 injured in areas of Syria controlled by the authorities, according to data from the Syrian Ministry of Health published on its Facebook social network profile. These data correspond to the provinces of Aleppo, Hama, Latakia, Tartus and the areas of Idlib in the hands of government forces.
“We are in a race against time and working with the maximum energy available and with the cooperation of all parties,” reads a statement from the Syrian Health Ministry, which indicates that the country’s Executive has reviewed the emergency measures that govern the situation
