Five days after the earthquake that devastated Turkey and Syria and killed more than 28,000 people, rescue teams continue to find survivors in the rubble this Saturday (11). The cold in the region makes rescue difficult and exacerbates the tragedy.

An 8-year-old boy is pulled out of the rubble and carried into his mother’s arms in Turkey – Photo: Burak Kara / ND reproduction

At least 870,000 people are in urgent need of food, according to the UN, and 5.3 million people are left homeless in Syria alone.

But among the death and destruction, rescuers continue to find survivors.

“Peace is there?” Menekse Tabak, 70, asked as she was pulled out of the rubble in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of the earthquake, to applause, according to a video released by public television channel TRT Haber.

In the city of Antakya, a two-month-old baby was rescued 128 hours after the earthquake, Anadolu news agency reported.

In addition, Turkish media reported that a two-year-old girl, a pregnant woman and a father with a four-year-old son were rescued five days after the earthquake.

In southern Turkey, families mourning a cotton field have become a cemetery, where an endless line of corpses hastily arrived for burial.

“Destructive Earthquake”

The WHO (World Health Organization) estimates that about 26 million people were affected by the devastating earthquake. The organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, arrived this Saturday in the Syrian city of Aleppo, which was badly damaged by the earthquake, to visit hospitals and reception centers of local authorities.

Tedros said he traveled with “about 37 tons of emergency supplies” and that there will be another tour this Sunday with more than 30 tons of aid.

The WHO director, who is a doctor, also warned of other serious consequences of the tragedy: “Water supply and other services have been affected, people are susceptible to diarrheal diseases and other health problems, especially mental health problems.”

After visiting the affected areas, Tedros said he was heartbroken to “see the conditions the survivors find themselves in.”

Aid to rebel areas

In Syria, the government announced it would allow international aid to reach rebel-held areas in the country’s earthquake-hit northwest. Damascus said the distribution of aid should be under the “supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Red Crescent” with the support of the UN.

Until now, virtually all aid given to the rebel areas has slowly moved out of Turkey through the Bab el-Hawa border crossing, the only UN-guaranteed one.

For the first time in 35 years, a border crossing with Armenia was opened to send aid to Turkey, Anadolu agency reported.

About 32,000 people have been mobilized in rescue operations, in addition to more than 8,000 foreign rescuers, according to the Turkish Emergency and Disaster Agency.

48 arrested for looting

Among the foreign support sent, Austrian and German units today announced the suspension of operations in Hatay due to the deteriorating “security situation” in the area.

Two rescuers with Austrian dogs managed to resume their tasks after a few hours, according to a military representative, “under the protection of the Turkish army.”

In Turkey, 48 people were arrested for looting. A decree published on Saturday now allows prosecutors to detain looting suspects for seven days, up from four.

Despite the efforts of emergency services, the death toll continues to rise. The latest balance sheet for Saturday records 28,191 deaths, 24,617 in Turkey and 3,574 in Syria.

Five days after the earthquake, the region’s deadliest since 1939, initial unrest has given way to anger and outrage in Turkey over the government’s response and the poor quality of construction. Authorities estimate that 12,141 buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged.

Turkish police arrested 12 people today for collapsing buildings in the provinces of Gaziantep and Sanlıurfa. More arrests are expected after Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said prosecutors had issued arrest warrants for 113 people.

Faced with criticism of public administration, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a sort of “my fault” on Friday.

“There were so many damaged buildings that, unfortunately, we were not able to expedite our intervention as we would have liked,” he said during a visit to Adiyaman.