1 min agoCold, wintry weather is making rescue efforts even more difficultFrom CNN’s Christian Edwards
Search and rescue efforts continue through cold weather conditions in Malatya, Turkey, on Tuesday. (Sercan Kucuksahin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)Severe weather conditions are hampering the efforts to rescue those trapped in the rubble in Turkey and Syria, and are endangering the thousands of people whose homes were damaged by Monday’s earthquake.
“Thousands of homes have been destroyed, displacing families and exposing them to the elements at a time of year when temperatures regularly drop below freezing and snow and freezing rain are common,” said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder at a news briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.
“Displaced families in northwest Syria, and Syrian refugee families living in Turkey in informal settlements are among the most vulnerable as overnight temperatures continue to dip below zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit),” he said.
Photos taken in earthquake-hit cities in southeastern Turkey show families huddling around fires to keep warm.
Eyewitnesses in northwest Syria told CNN the conditions there are “terrifying” with the quake leaving “entire families dead” and “survivors sleeping on the streets in the freezing cold.”Temperatures are already low, and by Wednesday they are expected to plummet several degrees below zero.
An area of low pressure currently hangs over Turkey and Syria. As that moves off, this will bring “significantly colder air” down from central Turkey, according to CNN’s senior meteorologist Britley Ritz.
It is forecast to be -4 degrees Celsius in Gaziantep and -2 degrees in Aleppo on Wednesday morning. On Thursday, this is forecast to fall further, to -6 degrees in Gaziantep and -4 degrees in Aleppo.
The conditions have already made it challenging for aid teams to reach the affected area, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said, adding that helicopters were unable to take off on Monday due to the poor weather.
It is a race to get people out from under the rubble while they are still alive,” said CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh, reporting live from Turkey on Tuesday.
16 min agoGlobal community pledges help to Turkey and Syria as rescue efforts continueFrom CNN staff
Rescuers search for survivors at the site of a collapsed building in Gaziantep, Turkey, on Tuesday. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)Aid from around the world is heading toward Turkey and Syria, as rescuers locate survivors in the debris of collapsed buildings following the deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake Monday.
Here’s a round-up of some of the latest pledges of support:
A Hungarian rescue team of 50 people, including five military doctors and two search dogs, landed in Adana in southern Turkey overnight and is now headed for the province of Hatay, according to the Hungarian Ministry of the Interior National Directorate for Disaster Protection.South Korea plans to offer humanitarian aid worth US$5 million to Turkey and send about 110 disaster relief workers and military personnel to support its search and rescue work, South Korea’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said Tuesday. The Palestinian International Cooperation Agency (PICA) will deploy 70 Palestinian experts to Turkey and Syria later this week, sending two crews comprised of the civil defence, the ministry of health, the Palestinian Red Cross and doctors and engineers.32 min agoGhanaian footballer Christian Atsu found alive following Turkey earthquakeFrom CNN’s Nimi Princewill and Chris Liakos
Footballer Christian Atsu is pictured during a Newcastle United training session in January 2021. (Serena Taylor/Newcastle United/Getty Images)International footballer Christian Atsu has been rescued from the aftermath of the powerful earthquake which struck southern Turkey on Monday.
“We’ve received some positive news that Christian Atsu has been successfully rescued from the rubble of the collapsed building and is receiving treatment. Let’s continue to pray for Christian,” the Ghana Football Association tweeted Tuesday.
AFP reported Tuesday that Atsu – who is currently playing for Turkish team Hatayspor – had been found in the southern province of Hatay, citing an interview that Ghana’s ambassador to Turkey, Francisca Ashietey-Odunton, gave to radio station based in Accra.
Atsu was not immediately accounted for amid search and rescue efforts after the earthquake.
The player’s former club, Premier League side Everton, said it is “relieved” to hear of his rescue.
“We are relieved to hear Christian Atsu has been successfully rescued and is recovering in hospital. Our thoughts continue to be with everyone affected by the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria,” Everton said on its official Facebook page.
49 min agoWHO says up to 23 million people could be affected by earthquakeFrom CNN’s Alex Stambaugh
Smoke billows from a fire in Iskenderun port in Turkey as people walk past collapsed buildings on Tuesday. (Burak Kara/Getty Images)The World Health Organization (WHO) said that nearly 23 million people could be impacted by the powerful earthquake that struck southern Turkey early Monday, which has left over 5,000 people dead and thousands more injured.
“Event overview maps show that potentially 23 million people are exposed, including around 5 million vulnerable populations, including more than 350,000 older people, 1.4 million children,” WHO senior emergencies officer Adelheid Marschang told the UN health agency’s executive board meeting in Geneva.
The head of the WHO expressed his concern at the situation, calling it a “race against time.”
“We’re especially concerned about areas where we do not yet have information,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “Damage mapping is one way to understand where we need to focus our attention.”
Footage of rescue efforts across both countries emerged Monday, with family members mourning the loss of loved ones while others celebrated as survivors were found in the rubble of fallen buildings.
1 hr 16 min agoHead of Syria’s Red Crescent ready to send aid to rebel-held areas From CNN’s Mostafa Salem
The head of Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) said that the organization is ready to “immediately” send aid convoys to rebel-held areas, including Idlib, through the United Nations, as international leaders struggle to send aid to quake-stricken parts of northwest Syria amid ongoing conflict and political crisis.
SARC describes itself as an independent organization. The group operates primarily across government-held territories and is based in the capital Damascus.
“We are ready to send an aid convoy through the cross-line into Idlib if they open the roads for us,” SARC President Khaled Hboubati told a news conference.
“The death toll will increase … until right now there are buildings collapsing in Aleppo and Latakia,” Hboubati said.
Hboubati added that the organization does not have enough capabilities to fully deal with the devastation.
“We were in every location after the earthquake, but we do not have the equipment, we do not have heavy machinery,” Hboubati said.
The official called for the lifting of international economic sanctions which are affecting the aid operation.
The powerful earthquake Monday has left over 5,000 people dead and injured thousands more people across Turkey and Syria.
Dr. Bachir Tajaldin, Turkey country director at the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), told CNN earlier that sending relief to Syria will be challenging because there “is no central government to take care of the multi-sectorial response.”
1 hr 30 min agoQuake death toll surpasses 5,000 in Turkey and Syria From CNN’s Mostafa Salem and Isil Sariyuce
A view of debris in Malatya, Turkey, on February 6. (Hakan Akgun/dia images/Getty Images)At least 5,034 deaths have now been confirmed in Turkey and Syria after a powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake rocked the region early on Monday.
Turkey’s death toll rose to at least 3,432, Turkey’s Disaster Coordination Center (AKOM) said Tuesday.
The deaths were reported in the provinces of Kahramanmaraş, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır, Adana, Adıyaman, Osmaniye, Hatay, Kilis and Malatya, AKOM said.
At least 21,103 people have been reported injured, AKOM added. Almost 26,000 search and rescue personnel have been involved in operations, along with 360 vehicles and 3,361 pieces of equipment, including more than 600 cranes, it said.
Additionally, 2,769 personnel from 65 countries have been deployed to the disaster area, according to AKOM.
In Syria, the death toll has risen to at 1,602 across government-controlled areas and opposition-controlled areas, officials said.
At least 3,649 people have been reported injured across the country, according to officials.
This post has been updated with the latest figures.
1 hr 48 min agoRelief operations will be more challenging in Syria than in Turkey, expert saysFrom CNN’s Christian Edwards
People wrapped in blankets look at the rubble as the search for survivors continues in Aleppo, Syria on Tuesday. (Firas Makdesi/Reuters)Dr. Bachir Tajaldin, Turkey country director at the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), told CNN’s This Morning about the difficulty of providing aid to Syria.
“The situation in Turkey is coordinated through a very well developed government. They have infrastructure, they have rescue teams,” Tajaldin said.
“In northern Syria, most of the services are provided by NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and through humanitarian aid. There is no central government to take care of the multi-sectoral response,” he said.SAMS is one of the many organizations providing relief in the region. This has been made harder after “the previous 12 years of crisis in Syria,” Tajaldin said. Attacks on civilian infrastructure and the absence of investment left northwestern Syria particularly vulnerable to this disaster.
“Yesterday we evacuated two maternity hospitals because of the physical impact of the earthquake on the infrastructure,” Tajaldin added.
2 hr 4 min agoChina is sending aid to earthquake-stricken regionFrom CNN’s Mengchen Zhang in Beijing
China said it will do its best to provide assistance to Turkey and Syria after a devastating earthquake struck the region Monday, killing more than 5,000 people and injuring over 24,000 across both countries.
The first batch of aid to Turkey will be 40 million Chinese yuan ($5.9 million), while also dispatching rescue and medical teams, and emergency supplies, the spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Mao Ning said Tuesday.
Beijing is coordinating with Syria for emergency supplies and accelerating the implementation of ongoing food aid projects, Mao added.
So far no Chinese citizens have been reported killed in the earthquake, China’s MOFA also confirmed.
Chinese President Xi Jinping sent condolences to his Turkish and Syrian counterparts, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Bashar al-Assad, on Monday, according to state media Xinhua, as rescuers search for survivors in the rubble of flattened buildings.
3 hr 8 min agoIsraeli aid groups chartering flight to Turkey with rescue specialists and equipmentFrom CNN’s Hadas Gold in Jerusalem
Two Israeli aid groups have chartered a flight to Gaziantep on Tuesday to bring personnel and equipment to victims of the earthquake in Turkey.
United Hatzalah, an Israeli volunteer emergency medical service, chartered the flight on El Al Airlines alongside aid group IsraAid, United Hatzalah spokesperson Raphael Poch said.
Ten search and rescue specialists, a water expert, and more than a dozen doctors, paramedics and mental health specialists will be on board the flight, according to Poch and IsraAid spokesperson Shachar May.
The groups said they will also be bringing “several tons” of humanitarian aid in the form of bedding, tents, warm clothing, food, water filters, hygiene kits, and resilience kits.