Search to end in quake-hit Turkiye

ANKARA/ANTAKYA, Turkiye — Turkish authorities have almost completed search and rescue work nearly two weeks after the massive earthquakes, a Turkish disaster agency said Sunday.

The 7.8-magnitude quake on Feb 6 in southeastern Turkiye and northern Syria and others that followed have killed more than 46,000 people, with the likelihood of finding survivors more than two weeks on extremely remote.

Search and rescue efforts had been completed in all provinces apart from Hatay and Kahramanmaras, the earthquake epicenter, the head of Turkiye's disaster agency, Yunus Sezer, said on Sunday.

Search and rescue efforts continued at about 40 buildings in the provinces on the 14th day after the first earthquake, Sezer said, but the number would fall by late Sunday.

The quake zone is estimated to have a population of 13.5 million, and many are homeless because their houses have either collapsed or are too dangerous to enter.

The government, with local and international aid organizations, has been engaged in a huge and intensive relief effort.

The authorities are working to provide more temporary accommodation with tents and containers, and with low temperatures, many survivors are still staying in hotels, dormitories, gyms and train carriages, or have been evacuated to other parts of the country.

More than 6,000 containers have been installed, and the infrastructure for establishing 68,000 containers is almost in place, the aim being to set up 100,000 within two months, Sezer said, adding that nearly 250,000 tents were already in use.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last week that 2.2 million people had left the disaster zone.

However, many survivors prefer to stay close to their homes to protect their possessions as others wait for debris removal to recover the bodies of relatives.

The Disaster and Emergency Management Authority issued a circular on Sunday saying entry to destroyed buildings is prohibited and that collecting possessions will be carried out under the supervision of security forces.

Local authorities have started disinfecting debris areas and trash cans. No outbreaks of infectious diseases have been detected in the quake zone, authorities said, but they warned people against drinking tap water.

The quake-hit region in southern Turkiye is home to millions of Syrian refugees who fled their country after a civil war erupted in 2011.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said a convoy of 14 of its trucks had entered northwestern Syria on Sunday to assist in earthquake rescue operations, as concerns grow over lack of access to the war-ravaged area.

Turkiye hosts nearly 3.5 million Syrian refugees, about half of whom had been taking shelter in the region hit by the quakes.

Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Sunday that at least 10,633 Syrian refugees in the country had returned to their homeland after the quakes.

"Our Syrian brothers who lost their families and places of stay in the earthquake returned to their lands voluntarily," Akar said during a visit to military border outposts in Hatay.

Xinhua - Agencies