Turkey ends quake rescue efforts except in two provinces
- Rescue operations continue in some 40 buildings in the Kahramanmaras and Hatay provinces but this number is expected to fall by Sunday evening
- Rescue teams have found no survivors in the last 24 hours, the total death toll including Syria is now 44,377
Turkey has ended rescue efforts in all provinces except the two hardest hit by last week’s massive quake that killed tens of thousands of people, the Turkish disaster agency said on Sunday.
“In many of our provinces, search and rescue efforts have been completed. They continue in Kahramanmaras and Hatay provinces,” the agency’s chief Yunus Sezer told reporters in Ankara.
While rescue operations continue in the two provinces, there have been no signs of anyone being dug from the rubble alive since three members of one family – a mother, father and 12-year-old boy – were extracted from a collapsed building in Hatay on Saturday. The boy later died.
The epicentre of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake on February 6 was in Pazarcik district in Kahramanmaras.
Sezer said search and rescue efforts continued at around 40 buildings in the provinces on the 14th day, but expected this number to fall by Sunday evening.
The agency head also said Turkey’s death toll had risen to 40,689.
