Death toll in Turkey-Syria earthquake tops 33,000

A seven-month-old baby has been rescued from the rubble in southeastern Turkey, state broadcaster TRT reported early on Sunday. Helpers were able to rescue the baby boy alive from a collapsed building in Hatay province after 140 hours. They had become aware of the child when they heard him crying. The death count in Turkey and neighbouring Syria passed 33,000 on Sunday. Search and rescue operations are still continuing, with Turkish and Romanian teams pulling a 35-year-old man out of the rubble in Hatay province 149 hours after the earthquake. Monday’s earthquake was the deadliest in Turkey since 1939. Looters arrested Turkish security teams arrested at least four dozen people on charges of looting damaged buildings or trying to defraud victims in the region via telephone, the state-run Anadolu News Agency reported. Two of those detained allegedly posed as aid workers and tried to loot six truckloads of food for earthquake victims in the southern Hatay province, the news site said. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said again on Saturday those looters would be arrested and punished. Austria resumes rescue operations Austrian troops restarted rescue operations after receiving security guarantees from the nation’s military, Michael Bauer, an Austrian army spokesman, said on Twitter. Austria earlier cited “an increasingly difficult security situation” in the southern province of Hatay for suspending the involvement of the Austrian Forces Disaster Relief Unit. Two German rescue groups also suspended rescue operations seeking security guarantees. UN warns of aid failure in Syria as death toll nears 30,000 The earthquake ranks as the world’s sixth deadliest natural disaster this century, its death toll exceeding the 31,000 from an earthquake in neighbouring Iran in 2003. It has killed 29,605 people in Turkey and more than 3,500 in Syria, where tolls have not been updated for two days. Turkey said about 80,000 people were in hospital, and more than 1 million in temporary shelters. UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths predicts the death count will “double or more”, he said in an interview with Sky. He described the scene as “a tangle of terrible rubble, which conceals those who we fear to find and makes getting to those dangerous for these heroic people who are doing this 24/7”. Two giant ships used as landing crafts for the Turkish military have been sent to the country’s south to serve as hospitals for the injured, with 560 beds on each vessel, according to Anadolu. Medical care on board will include surgery for trauma and orthopaedics. Turkish court arrests builder of collapsed luxury residence A Turkish court formally arrested the builder of the luxury “Ronesans Residence”, a 250-unit block of flats in Hatay province that collapsed on February 6, Anadolu Agency reported. The businessman was previously detained in Istanbul while attempting to fly abroad. The building, under which dozens died, has been dubbed the “Death Residence” in Turkish media. In Adana province, prosecutors issued detention warrants for 62 people as part of an investigation into shoddy construction. Oktay said 113 detention warrants were issued for suspects in investigations against those deemed responsible for shoddy construction in the earthquake area. Thousands of buildings hit by twin earthquakes are unusable even if they have not collapsed, a Turkish official said. After examining almost 133,000 buildings in 10 provinces, officials have reached the conclusion that 12,617 of them suffered heavy damage and cannot be used safely, Anadolu Agency cited Banu Aslan, head of a department for construction affairs at the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change, as saying. More than 1 million earthquake survivors have been moved into temporary shelters, Oktay said. Nearly 200,000 people have been evacuated from the earthquake zone to the west of the country, he said. Turkish universities will move classes online until the summer to free up accommodation for survivors, according to Erdogan. All university campus dormitories will be used for sheltering people affected by the earthquakes, he said. Qatar donates World Cup cabins and caravans Qatar will send Turkey and Syria 10,000 cabins and caravans used during the World Cup, which would now house people who lost their homes in the earthquake, Qatari officials said on Sunday. “In view of the urgent needs in Turkey and Syria, we have taken the decision to ship our cabins and caravans to the region, providing much needed and immediate support to the people of Turkey and Syria,” a Qatari official told Agence France-Presse. The mobile homes were used for a few weeks when Qatar hosted the Fifa World Cup last year. Officials have indicated after the tournament they would be donated. The first shipment is set to leave Doha port for Turkey on Monday, with further deliveries expected in the coming days, Qatari officials said, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media. The Gulf state’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, visited Turkey on Sunday, the first foreign leader to do so since last week’s earthquake. How to help Turkish Consulate General Hong Kong hongkong.cg.mfa.gov.tr Unicef Hong Kong www.unicef.org.hk Oxfam www.oxfam.org.hk Save the Children www.savethechildren.org.hk World Vision Hong Kong worldvision.org.hk Red Cross www.redcross.org.hk Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) www.doctorswithoutborders.org