site.btaUPDATED Situation in Earthquake-hit City of Nurdagi Remains Extremely Critical
The situation in the earthquake-hit town of Nurdagi, Gaziantep province in Southern Turkiye, remains extremely critical. There is not a single building that can be occupied, Mustafa, a journalist with the Turkish news agency Ihlas, told BTA on Thursday.
All the surviving residents spent another night in the open, some of them in tents, others in their cars, others literally under the sky, wrapped in blankets, or with nothing to cover themselves with. Temperatures at night dropped to minus eight degrees. People light fires and teams of volunteers bring them wood.
Rescue teams are still searching for people trapped under the rubble. The death toll is unclear, new victims are constantly being reported. Morgues in the city are overflowing, Mustafa added. The hospitals are also crowded with injured people.
Mustafa told BTA that he had come from Gaziantep to his brother's family, who had a house in Nurdagi. The family house is collapsed, they have been sleeping in their cars for several days, they say they have food and water handed out by volunteers. However, their biggest problem is the lack of proper shelter.
Tens of thousands of families in the city stay outside in freezing temperatures. The wailing sirens of ambulances can be heard at all times, but in the last two days they have mostly been carrying the remains of dead people. There are also a lot of hearse vehicles. Heavy equipment is working at various locations in the settlement. Helicopters are constantly flying over the collapsed city.
/YV/
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