Turkey is working to open two more border gates with Syria to enable the delivery of humanitarian aid to its neighbour which also suffers from massive earthquakes, Turkish Foreign Minister said
They lifted slabs of cement with enormous cranes and smashed rubble with jackhammers. Then, they stopped. Silence. Key to detecting the faintest noise that could be the sign of a survivor buried beneath rubble from Monday's quake in Turkiye and Syria . Among the wreckage of a collapsed 14-story building in the Turkish city of Adana, the shriek of an whistle pierced the noise every few minutes on Wednesday. Rescue workers hollered for quiet, and listened for any hint of voices from the debris. Hundreds of people watching hushed. During one moment of digging, Volunteer Bekir Bicer uncovered a crushed birdcage, he said. Inside was a blue-and-yellow bird, alive after nearly 60 hours. I was very happy. I nearly cried, Bicer said. The cage was broken, but the bird was still inside. Friends and family of the trapped sat beside fires, waiting for a miracle even as the survival window for those trapped under the rubble was closing. Suat Yarkan, 50, said his aunt and her two daughters li
Turkey has been facing a major humanitarian crisis after earthquakes jolted the country on Monday
Turkey's Ambassador to India Firat Sunel has said that 'Operation Dost' is a "very important operation" and demonstrates the friendship between the two nations
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A fresh team of 51 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel is being rushed to earthquake-hit Turkiye even as two teams present there have launched rescue operations at multiple collapsed structures, Director General of the force Atul Karwal said Wednesday. The third team of the federal contingency force has already been airlifted from Varanasi to Delhi and the rescuers are expected to leave for the disaster-struck nation by tonight on board an IAF plane, he said. According to an international press report, the death toll in the catastrophic Monday quake has surpassed 9,000 even as countries across the globe are rushing aid and manpower to provide succour to the people of Turkiye and neighbouring Syria. Karwal told PTI that the two teams sent on Tuesday, comprising a total 101 personnel, have been given their area of operation in Turkiye and they are in action now deployed at Nurdagi in Gaziantep province while the other is present around Urfa area. "Our teams have started
India on Wednesday handed over six tonnes of relief materials, including essential medicines and medical equipment, to earthquake-hit Syria. The consignments were sent on a C-130J military transport aircraft on Tuesday night and were handed over to the Syrian authorities by India's Charge'd Affaires S K Yadav this morning. India has already sent to Turkiye relief materials, a mobile hospital and specialised search and rescue teams in four C-17 Globemaster military transport aircraft on Tuesday to support the country's rescue efforts following the massive earthquake that has killed thousands of people. In the wake of tragic earthquake that struck North-Western Syria on February 6, causing massive destruction and loss of precious lives, the government of India has despatched six tonnes of emergency relief assistance through a special aircraft of the Indian Air Force to Syria, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. It said the consignments were handed over by Yadav to the Deput
Another earthquake of magnitude 4.3 jolted Nurdagi district, a city in Gaziantep Province of Turkey on Wednesday.
'On behalf of the whole ISF family, we would like to express our deepest sympathies for the people of Turkiye during this difficult time'
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'Their ability to access quality care before, during and after delivery must not be an afterthought'
The UNESCO has expressed concerns over damage to Syrian and Turkish heritage sites, and vowed support for the two earthquake-devastated countries
Zeliha Hisir tried to speak, but could barely move after her hourslong rescue Tuesday near the epicentre of a powerful earthquake that has devastated parts of Turkiye and Syria. The 58-year-old woman's eyes darted around in shock and relief as a rescue crew covered her in a bright pink and green fuzzy blanket. Dressed only in shorts and a T-shirt, she had survived through freezing temperatures in Kahramanmaras. Her son, Mufit Hisir, told The Associated Press that firefighters who flew in from Antalya had rescued his relatives. "Two hours ago my sibling was rescued after a six-hour effort. And my mother's rescue took two hours. They're both well," he said. Crowds gathered at wreckage sites throughout Turkiye, vapour showing the air as people breathed in and out in anticipation of reaching more survivors. Even those who had emerged or escaped collapse in Monday's magnitude 7.8 earthquake and its aftershocks now had to sleep in cars, outside or in government shelters. Many felt ...
Even before Monday's devastating earthquake, getting aid to all parts of war-battered Syria was fraught with daunting political and logistical challenges. Those hurdles have only multiplied in the wake of the disaster that has killed thousands in Turkey and Syria and brought down thousands of buildings. Damage to roads and other infrastructure in southern Turkey has stalled aid from reaching northern Syria, an area already devastated by 12 years of conflict. Meanwhile, the government of Bashar Assad in Damascus is still a pariah in much of the international community, sanctioned by the US and European countries, which are reluctant to route aid directly through the government. American and EU officials have made clear the quake won't change that. Emergency workers say delays could cost lives, as local rescue crews struggle to pull families and children from the rubble and find housing for survivors amid brutal winter weather. A key issue complicating the dispersal of aid is "the w
The death toll from a 7.8 magnitude earthquake and multiple aftershocks rose to more than 5,000 on Tuesday as more bodies were pulled from the rubble of collapsed buildings. Turkiye's Vice President Fuat Oktay said the total number of deaths in Turkey had risen to 3,419, with another 20,534 people injured. That brought the number of people killed to 5,102, with another 1,602 people confirmed dead on the Syrian side of the border. The earthquake struck early Monday morning, bringing down thousands of buildings. Rescuers were racing frantically to find more survivors but their efforts were being impeded by temperatures below freezing and some 200 aftershocks, which made the search through unstable structures perilous.
Two National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams, comprising 101 personnel, left for Turkiye on Tuesday to help in rescue operations after a 7.8 magnitude quake killed thousands of people in the country. The federal contingency force is accompanied by two search dogs, four-wheeled vehicles, chipping hammers, cutting tools, first aid medicines and communication setup. The personnel, drawn from teams based in Ghaziabad and Kolkata, boarded two Indian Air Force (IAF) C-17 aircraft from the Hindon air base in Ghaziabad, an NDRF officer told PTI. The Turkey-bound group includes five women rescuers, a doctor and paramedics. The NDRF teams will land at the Adana airport in south Turkey where they will meet a link officer from the Indian Embassy and Turkish government authorities for further deployment at affected areas, he said. "This is part of the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) measures announced by the Indian government on Monday for the earthquake-hit Turkey and
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Rescuers in Turkey and war-ravaged Syria searched through the frigid night into Tuesday, hoping to pull more survivors from the rubble after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed more than 3,400 people and toppled thousands of buildings across a wide region. Authorities feared the death toll from Monday's pre-dawn earthquake and aftershocks would keep climbing as rescuers looked for survivors among tangles of metal and concrete spread across the region beset by Syria's 12-year civil war and refugee crisis. Survivors cried out for help from within mountains of debris as first responders contended with rain and snow. Seismic activity continued to rattle the region, including another jolt nearly as powerful as the initial quake. Workers carefully pulled away slabs of concrete and reached for bodies as desperate families waited for news of loved ones. My grandson is 1 1/2 years old. Please help them, please... They were on the 12th floor, Imran Bahur wept by her destroyed apartment buildin
The first Indian Air Force plane carrying disaster relief material and rescue team to support search and rescue efforts in Turkey has reached Adana in the earthquake-hit country, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday.The C17 flight with over 50 personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and a specially trained dog squad along with necessary equipment, including medical supplies, drilling machines and other equipment equired for the aid efforts had departed for Turkey early this morning.Turkish Embassy in New Delhi tweeted: "First batch of earthquake relief material along with NDRF's special search & rescue teams and trained dog squads just arrived in Turkiye. Thank you India for your support and solidarity."Taking to Twitter, Jaishankar wrote, "First Indian C17 flight with more than 50 @NDRFHQ Search & Rescue personnel, specially trained dog squads, drilling machines, relief material, medicines and other necessary utilities & ...
On Tuesday, India dispatched the first batch of humanitarian aid along with a rescue team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to Turkey