Earthquake survivors in Turkey, Syria continue

Rescue teams in Turkey have unearthed two women alive from ruins, as they had been blocked for 122 hours, authorities said on Saturday.

From powerful earthquakes on February 6th, the number of victims in Turkey and Syria has reached over 24,150.

The previous day, Turkey's president, Recep Tayip Erdogan, said authorities should have acted earlier after this natural disaster.

Sixty-seven persons have been removed from the ruins in the 24 hours advance, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said during an address in late hours Friday.

About 80,000 people are being treated in hospitals, meanwhile 1.05 million persons left homeless, Oktai said.

Our main goal is to make sure that they return to normal life, offering them housing within a year and healing their pain as soon as possible”, Oktai stressed.

In Syria, which was also hit by earthquakes of 7.8 and 7.5, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has made his first visit to earthquake-affected areas. As the Syrian state media reported, he and his wife Asma have visited a hospital in Alepo.

His government has approved humanitarian aid to the entire front line in the 12-year civil war, a move that could help millions of people in urgent need of help.

Monday's 7.8-strong earthquake followed by several other powerful earthquakes in Turkey and Syria is the seventh deadliest disaster of this century.

An earthquake of similar magnitudes in Turkey in 1999 had killed over 17,000 people. /rel