With the death toll from the Türkiye earthquake rising to just over 21 000, an emergency crew from KwaZulu-Natal has arrived safely in the ravaged region to assist with rescue efforts.
Medi Response Search and Rescue spokesperson, Paul Herbst said the team arrived safely at the international coordination point after several days of travel.
He said operating under the banner of the Gift of the Givers, the team joined hundreds of international responders from dozens of countries.
“Traffic leading up to Antakya is problematic, as is expected under such circumstances, which resulted in a 180km trip by road, taking eight hours.
“Teams and members have registered with incident coordinators and are busy establishing camp, preparing equipment and planning logistics. They will soon deploy to affected areas and commence search operations,” Herbst said.
He said reports from the ground indicate that just three percent of collapsed buildings have since been searched and cleared of survivors.
Herbst said teams already conducting operations have located and rescued survivors throughout the course of the day, in sub-zero temperatures.
“Such international responses are mammoth tasks to coordinate and relevant guidelines and frameworks for such operations, have be implemented. Teams align to global response frameworks to ensure consistency across all areas of efforts,” Herbst said.
Reuters reported that several people were pulled from the rubble of buildings during the night, including a 10-year-old boy saved with his mother after 90 hours in the Samandag district of Hatay province in Türkiye's south.
IOL