Rescue workers face 'gut-wrenching' silence in search for victims as death toll tops 25k

Rescue workers from Turkey’s disaster agency AFAD have been desperately searching for more survivors amid the rubble provoked by Monday’s earthquakes on their fifth day of operations. The three earthquakes that struck the Turkish city of Gaziantep at its epicentre with magnitudes of 7.8, 7.5, and 5.0 is the deadliest natural disaster of the last two decades, with a death toll now surpassing 25,000. Amid a lack of resources and little international aid, rescue workers have scrambled to save victims in a race against time.

Footage shared on TikTok from the devastated scenes of Turkish cities show rescue workers shouting as a last resort to save other victims who may still be alive under the rubble.

In their desperate search for victims, a group of workers sent by state-owned Turkish Hard Coal Enterprises (TTK), was filmed shouting in unison: “Can anyone hear our voices?”

The video relayed by @fatimazsaid was captioned: “The silence that follows is gut-wrenching.”

Other social media users described the video as “heart-wrenching”, “soul-breaking”, “devastating”, “absolutely heartbreaking” and “really tragic”.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has come under fire over his response, with opposition politicians blaming the Turkish leader for the slow relief effort and failure to coordinate with local authorities.

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the main opposition party CHP, said: “They failed in this as they failed in every other issue, they don’t know how to manage the state.

“If there is anyone responsible for this process, it is Erdoğan. It is this ruling party that has not prepared the country for an earthquake for 20 years.”

On Thursday, Erdoğan visited some of the devastated communities and pledged to provide each impacted family with £410 in cash assistance in addition to building social housing for all survivors within a year.

He also admitted that “of course, there [were] shortcomings” as “it’s not possible to be ready for a disaster like this,” but that “things are now back on track”.

READ MORE: Anger at Erdogan’s earthquake response as troops patrol the streets

He added: “Some dishonourable, dishonest people are making false statements such as ‘We didn’t see any soldiers or police.’ Our soldiers and police are honourable. We won’t let the disreputable speak of them like this.”

Fears are now growing international aid and funds may not benefit survivors and instead end up in the pocket of “swindlers”.

Earlier this week, Sinan Ciddi, an expert on Turkish domestic and foreign politics, told Express.co.uk there are legitimate concerns some of the funds could end up “in the wrong hands” after parts of EU funds destined to host migrants at the height of the migrant crisis in 2015 were misused and misappropriated.

He said: “I have seen a couple of scenes on the ground where there were looters getting into these relief structures and trying to pick out what they wanted. I’m not sure how widespread that is. But in the absence of state authorities in some places, that’s bound to happen.”

In neighbouring Syria, anger has grown among victims who have seen little international support, with only a few convoys making their way into north-west Syria, which has been most affected by the earthquake.

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source: express.co.uk