Antakya, Feb. 7 (BNA): Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared today, Tuesday, a state of emergency in 10 provinces devastated by two earthquakes that killed more than 5,100 people and left behind traces of destruction in a wide area in southern Turkey and neighboring Syria.
A day after the earthquake, rescuers working in extreme conditions were struggling to extract people from the rubble of collapsed buildings in a “race against time”.
As the scale of the disaster became ever clearer, the death toll seemed likely to rise exponentially. Reuters quoted a United Nations official as saying that he feared thousands of children had been killed
Thousands of buildings were toppled, hospitals and schools were destroyed, and tens of thousands of people were injured or made homeless in several Turkish and Syrian cities by the 7.8-magnitude quake – the deadliest in Turkey since 1999 – and the second one an hour later.
Harsh winter weather hampered rescue efforts and aid deliveries, and made the plight of the homeless even more miserable. Some areas were without fuel and electricity.
Aid officials have expressed particular concern about the situation in Syria, which is already experiencing a humanitarian crisis after nearly 12 years of civil war.
In a speech on Tuesday, Erdogan declared the 10 affected Turkish provinces a disaster area and imposed a state of emergency in the region for three months. This would allow the president and cabinet to bypass parliament in enacting new laws and restricting or suspending rights and freedoms.
Erdogan, who faces national elections in three months, said the government plans to open hotels in Antalya, a tourism hub in the West, to temporarily house earthquake-affected people.
Erdogan said the death toll in Turkey had risen to 3,549. In Syria, the death toll has reached more than 1,600 people.
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