
At least 23,000 people were killed four days ago when a powerful earthquake shook Turkey and neighboring Syria. On Friday, some survivors were pulled from the wreckage of buildings in Turkey, cheering up the exhausted search teams.
Thousands of individuals who were made homeless by the tremors, the deadliest in the area in decades, were overcome by cold, hunger, and despair.
A 10-year-old child and his mother were retrieved from the wreckage of a building in the Samandag district of Hatay province after being trapped there for 90 hours. A seven-year-old girl called Asya Donmez was also rescued in Hatay after 95 hours and transferred to a hospital, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.
However, there were dwindling expectations that more people might be discovered alive among the thousands of destroyed structures in towns and cities all around the area. More people have died as a result of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake and several strong aftershocks that have struck both nations than were killed by the more than 17,000-ton earthquake that struck northwest Turkey in 1999.
It is currently the eighth deadliest natural disaster of the century, surpassing the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in 2011 and coming close to the 31,000 people killed by an earthquake in neighboring Iran in 2003.
The incident, according to a Turkish official, poses “extremely serious issues” for the May 14 election, in which President Tayyip Erdogan is anticipated to face the fiercest opposition in his 20 years in office.
The catastrophe is likely to influence the vote if it goes through because of simmering resentment over the delays in relief delivery and starting the rescue attempt. The first U.N. supply convoy arrived in Syria from Turkey and crossed the border.