Earthquake in Turkey and Syria: more than 24 thousand dead

Five days after the earthquake that hit parts of Turkey and Syria, authorities confirmed that the death toll rose to 24,000, while Turkish President Tayipp Erdogan said rescuers “should have acted faster.” Last Monday, an earthquake of a magnitude of 7.8 triggered the catastrophe in southeastern Turkey and northeastern Syria, with the epicenter in Pazarcik district. Since then, rescuers worked day and night, calling for silence to hear any sound of life under the rubble to rescue the victims. Although right now we have the largest search and rescue team in the world, it is a reality that the search efforts are not as fast as we would like,” Erdogan said.So far, 20,213 deaths have been confirmed in Turkey and 3,500 more in Syrian territory. In addition, hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes and were left in desolate conditions without shelter or food for the coming days. In this scenario, the authorities confirmed the rescue alive of Christian Atsu, renowned soccer player ex Chelsea, but it was later denied, and the wife asked that “send resources to get people out of the rubble, especially my partner and father of my children.” He also explained that rescuers know where the victims are, but do not have “the necessary equipment to get them out.” With the death toll so far, the earthquake is the seventh largest catastrophe of this century, surpassing the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011. 

Original source in Spanish