COLOMBO –Environment Minister Naseer Ahamed has expressed his deep shock and grief over the irreparable damage caused to Turkiye and Syria due to the recent earthquake.
“ I am deeply shocked to hear the increasing number of deaths that has created chaos in the country. I know words cannot console for the heavy loss of lives and properties,” the minister said in a statement to the Turkish Embassy in Colombo on Tuesday, Feb 7.
Turkey is a friendly country that has been with Sri Lanka in good and bad times, he said ,recalling the Turkish assistance during Tsunami period. “ They even built houses for those who lost their dwellings,” he added.
Meanwhile, exhausted rescue workers toiling all night have managed to pull thousands of survivors from beneath the wreckage of a dozen shattered cities across southern Türkiye and northern Syria, but have also recovered thousands of bodies, as the death toll from Monday’s series of earthquakes climbed to nearly 4,000, with almost another 20,000 injured.
The official death toll shortly after midnight was 3,823. But World Health Organisation (WHO) officials warned that the death toll could rise as many as eight times within the next week as bodies are pulled from the rubbles.
“We always see the same thing with earthquakes, unfortunately, which is that the initial reports of the numbers of people who have died or who have been injured will increase quite significantly in the week that follows,” the WHO’s senior emergency officer for Europe, Catherine Smallwood, told AFP.
Türkiye has so far counted 2,379 dead and 14,483 injured, while neighboring Syria reports 1,444 dead and 3,411 injured. Many people spent Monday night huddled in makeshift shelters, but were forced to run out into the streets repeatedly as aftershocks continued to jolt the region. Türkiye’s government has declared seven days of mourning.
