ANKARA -UNS/AFP: Rescue teams began to wind down the search for survivors on Monday, a week after an earthquake devastated parts of Turkiye and Syria leaving more than 35,000 dead and millions in dire need of aid.
While the focus switched to helping desperate survivors who lack food and shelter, stories continue to emerge of people found alive in the rubble seven days after the 7.8-magnitude tremor.
On Monday, a 12-year-old boy named Kaan was pulled from the debris in southern Hatay, 182 hours after the fifth-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century, Turkish media reported.
However, experts warn hopes of finding people alive are dimming.
The confirmed death toll stands at 35,224 as officials and medics said 31,643 people had died in Turkiye and at least 3,581 in Syria.
The United Nations said it expects the toll to rise far higher.
The United Nations has decried the failure to ship desperately needed aid to war-torn regions of Syria and warned that the toll is set to rise even higher as experts caution that hopes for finding people alive dim with each passing day.
“Send any stuff you can because there are millions of people here and they all need to be fed,” Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu appealed to Turks late Sunday.
In Kahramanmaras, close to the epicentre, 30,000 tents have been installed, 48,000 people are sheltering in schools and another 11,500 in sports halls, he said.
While hundreds of rescue teams were still working, efforts had ended in seven parts of the province, he added.
Survivors face a lack of water and poor sanitation. In southern Adiyaman an outbreak of scabies — a skin disease known to spread in crowded areas — is affecting adults, while children are suffering from diarrhoea, local media reported.
Hatice Goz, a volunteer psychologist in Turkiye’s Hatay province, said she has been fielding “a barrage of calls” from frantic parents looking for missing children.
Quake could cost Turkiye up to $84 billion
The quake has left a trail of destruction that could cost Ankara up to $84.1 billion, a business group said, while a government official put the figure at more than $50bn.
A report published at the weekend by the Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation put the cost of the damage at $84.1bn — $70.8bn from the repair of thousands of homes, $10.4bn from loss of national income and $2.9bn from loss of working days.
It said the main costs would be rebuilding housing, transmission lines and infrastructure, and meeting the short, medium and long-term shelter needs of the hundreds of thousands left homeless.
Lack of aid in northern Syria
In Antakya, clean-up teams started to evacuate rubble and erect basic toilets as the telephone network started to come back in parts of the town, an AFP reporter said.
The city was patrolled by a strong police and military presence which authorities deployed to prevent looting following several incidents over the weekend.
