Turkish Vice President Fuad Aktay confirmed today, Sunday, that the authorities are not losing hope of finding survivors after the devastating earthquake that struck the country last Monday and killed more than 29,000 people.
“We will not complete the rescue phase from the affected areas without conclusive evidence that there are no survivors,” he said, referring to the evacuation of 400,000 people from the affected areas by air.
He also said that about 34,000 people from the rescue teams continue to search for those stuck in the affected areas, despite difficult conditions, according to the Turkish TV channel TRT.
The vice president announced that Antakya Airport in southern Turkey’s Hatay province has become accessible to citizens after damage has been repaired, noting that evacuation centers are working “intensely” to accommodate survivors from the affected areas.
A large number of victims
This comes as the death toll from the earthquake in southeast Turkey has risen to 29,605, according to a statement from Turkey’s Department of Emergency Situations today, Sunday.
At the same time, the official Turkish channel TRT, citing the disaster management department, reported that 147,934 people had been evacuated.
Parallel to this, there have been international warnings about the possibility of the spread of some epidemics, especially cholera, and the Health Organization announced yesterday, Saturday, that the number of people affected by the devastating earthquake has reached about 26 million people, distributed as follows: 15 million in Turkey and 11 million in Syria.
He also warned that more than five million of them are considered the most vulnerable, including about 350,000 older people and more than 1.4 million children.
