Rescue Efforts After Earthquake Straggle On in Syria’s Aleppo
ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – The Aleppo Civil Defense and emergency rescue teams, backed by the Aleppo fire department, continued searching for survivors on Tuesday, as hundreds of people, including children, are still trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings as a result of a deadly earthquake on Monday.
Rescuers have been combing through mountains of rubble to find survivors in Aleppo’s eastern neighborhoods, including al-Salihin neighborhood, a source in the Aleppo Civil Defense told North Press.
The source added that during the night and early morning hours, the working teams were able to exhume nine bodies, including three children, from under the rubble of three adjacent buildings in al-Salihin. The search for four missing persons, say their families, is still underway.
On Monday at 4:17 am, Syria and Turkey were rocked by an earthquake whose epicenter was located near Gaziantep, Turkey.
In Aleppo, a number of residential buildings collapsed in the neighborhoods of al-Adhamiya, Salah al-Din, al-Ansari, al-Firdous, Dahrat Awwad, Karm al-Jabal, al-Shaar, Bustan al-Qasr, and al-Jazmati. Many families are still unaccounted for.
The source described the situation as a humanitarian catastrophe, due to the difficulty of the search process, which is taking place in freezing and rainy conditions, and without the help of specialized equipment.
On Monday, the Aleppo Governorate issued a decision directed at all government institutions, calling for all government departments to inspect their buildings, to take evacuation and first aid measures, and to conduct a field survey of damaged residential buildings.
Aleppo is among the worst-hit areas in Syria. So far, 52 building have collapsed, and the number is likely to increase, especially since collapsed buildings have damaged neighboring buildings, the source added.
The source stressed that rescue teams are still removing the rubble of destroyed buildings in Aleppo with their limited capabilities and supported by firefighters and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.
Buildings and walls in the old neighborhoods of Aleppo also collapsed as a result of the earthquake.
According to the testimonies of residents of the al-Jalloum neighborhood of Aleppo, the rescue teams have not yet entered Old Aleppo, despite calls to free those trapped under the rubble.
The Ministry of Health of the Syrian government recorded 812 deaths and 1.449 injuries in the governorates of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Tartus, as well as in the Idlib countryside, as a result of Monday’s earthquake.