Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said enforcement of stricter building regulations was needed in the country after a powerful earthquake that rocked southern Turkey last week, killing tens of thousands people.
Erdogan said “collapsed buildings reminded the government of the need for stricter construction rules” in a televised speech, adding that his government would continue work until the last person was rescued from the ruins in the quake-hit area.
Abdulkafi Alhamdo, an activist and a resident of Idlib, says rescue workers are still continuing to search for survivors under the rubble, even as “the chances of getting to people alive are almost zero”.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Idlib, he sounded the alarm on the immense humanitarian emergency faced by survivors in northwestern Syria, a region, he said, was “already devastated before the earthquake”.
“The people who have survived this catastrophe have lost everything,” he said, adding that the United Nations has been “very late” in responding to the people’s needs.
“They need tents, carpets, blankets, food, medical treatment,” added Alhmado, noting also that psychological support was needed to deal with the mental trauma.
More than seven million children have been affected by the massive earthquake and a major aftershock that devastated Turkey and Syria last week, the United Nations has said, voicing fear that “many thousands” more had died.
“In Turkey, the total number of children living in the 10 provinces hit by the two earthquakes was 4.6 million children. In Syria, 2.5 million children are affected,” James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, told reporters in Geneva.
“UNICEF fears many thousands of children have been killed,” Elder said, warning that “even without verified numbers, it is tragically clear that numbers will continue grow.”
The death toll from the earthquake in Syria and Turkey has topped 40,000. Some 35,000 of those killed were in Turkey, making it the country’s worst disaster in a century. At the same time, a few flickers of life are still being found, reports PBS.
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