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Two massive quakes that struck southern Turkiye on Feb 6 have claimed over 42,000 lives, acording to Turkiye's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority.
On Feb 20, two new earthquakes measuring 6.4- and 5.8-magnitude, respectively, jolted the southern Hatay province near the Syrian border, killing at least six people and wounding 294 others.
The first batch of medical materials from the Red Cross Society of China to earthquake-hit areas in Syria departed Beijing on Thursday morning, the organization said.
The shipment contains 5,000 medical items and was flown by chartered plane from the Beijing Red Cross Rescue Center.
It was sent upon special request from the Chinese embassy in Syria and the Syrian Red Crescent.
Rescue workers from China's Red Cross also left for Syria on the same plane.
China's Red Cross has sent sister organizations in Turkiye and Syria $200,000 each to help with disaster relief and rescue operations after powerful earthquake devastated the two countries on Monday.
BEIJING - The Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) on Thursday morning dispatched a team of rescue workers with its first batch of medical supplies to Syria to assist the earthquake-hit country in rescue operations.
The RCSC sent the supplies at the request of the Syrian Embassy and the Syrian Red Crescent, which will meet the needs of up to 5,000 people.
After strong earthquakes jolted Turkiye and Syria on Monday, the RCSC has provided the Turkish Red Crescent and the Syrian Red Crescent with 200,000 US dollars in cash respectively as emergency humanitarian assistance.
The RCSC said it will keep abreast of the humanitarian needs in the disaster-stricken areas in the two countries and pledged to offer humanitarian aid to the best of its ability.
Chinese companies are rushing to provide much-needed support, including excavators, to facilitate rescue work in Turkey after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the region, the most devastating since 1999.
A local power station that a Chinese company developed at the epicenter is also gearing up to maintain power supplies while dealing with the impact.
Turkiye, a major player of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has no shortage of cooperation with Chinese companies and projects, which offers the possibility of a quick response to the rescue work by mobilizing the best equipment and resources on hand.
A branch of Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group Co (XCMG), a leading Chinese construction machinery producer, immediately initiated an emergency mechanism on Tuesday, coordinating the movement of three excavators to the quake-hit Turkish city of Gaziantep, the Global Times learned.
The company also reached out to its local dealers to bring more excavators to the region, XCMG told the Global Times on Wednesday.
The death toll from Monday's quakes in Turkiye has risen to more than 7,100 and 40,910 people have been injured, according to Turkiye's Disaster Management Authority on Wednesday. Untold numbers of people are still buried in the debris, and Turkey is calling for urgent rescue operations.
The company said that more than a dozen excavators of various sizes and other heavy equipment will join the rescue work.
Aid supplies have been mobilized, with the first batch valued at more than 50,000 Turkish lira ($2,655) purchased and delivered five hours after the quake on Tuesday, XCMG said. This batch includes blankets, baby products and hygiene products, and more aid is on the way.
SANY Group, another major Chinese producer of heavy machinery, told the Global Times on Wednesday that it has excavators in Turkiye, which will be coordinated as part of the company's contribution to the rescue work.
"We will participate in the rescue as part of our corporate social responsibility," an employee of the company said. The earthquake has had only a limited impact on the company's global businesses.
Turkiye also has one of the largest BRI projects in the region - the Hunutlu Thermal Power Plant, a landmark project, which is located near the epicenter of the earthquake in Adana.
Thanks to the reliable quality of Made-in- China equipment, the project was undamaged during the quake. It has remained operational, providing electricity at a time of need, the Global Times learned from China Energy Engineering Corp (Energy China), the designer of the power station.
The power plant continues to generate electricity, which offers a guarantee to the aid work, even as two nearby power plants were knocked offline by the quake and reduced power supply in the region, Energy China said.
The direct impact of the disaster is limited so far for Chinese companies and projects in the region.
Employees at a branch company of PowerChina in Istanbul, which is far away from the epicenter, said that work is proceeding as normal.
XCMG told the Global Times that the supply of materials in Ankara, where a branch company is located, is adequate at the moment, but logistics have been disrupted by the quake.
China has been beefing up support for the rescue work in Turkiye and neighboring regions. During a regular press conference on Wednesday, the spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mao Ning said that after more than 10 hours of flying, 82 members of the Chinese rescue team arrived at the airport in the southern Turkish city of Adana in the early hours of Wednesday, with over 20 tons of aid supplies.
China's official rescue team worked with local rescuers to pull a pregnant woman out of the rubble of a building that collapsed during a devastating earthquake in Antakya, Turkiye, early on Thursday morning, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.
The 82-member team headed to the city without any rest after arriving in the city of Adana at 4:30 am local time on Wednesday. They then spent about five hours traveling to Antakya, the ministry said in a news release on Thursday.
The woman was rescued at 1:30 am from an eight-story building that crumbled after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Turkiye and its neighbor Syria on Monday. That earthquake was followed by a magnitude 7.5 temblor along with hundreds of aftershocks.
After holding talks with local governments, during which workers from the Chinese embassy also participated, the team found a site to set up camp, the release said. Members of the team threw themselves into humanitarian rescue operations immediately afterwards.
The release said Chinese rescuers have began conducting searches in two areas for earthquake victims.
HATAY, Turkiye - The Chinese rescue team, working with local partners, rescued a pregnant woman from a collapsed 8-story building early Thursday here.
ANKARA/DAMASCUS - The death toll from Monday's devastating earthquake in Turkiye and Syria has risen to 15,383, according to data released by authorities and rescuers.
The number of people killed in Turkiye due to the devastating earthquake has reached 12,391, the country's Anadolu agency reported on Thursday, citing the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority.
In Syria, at least 1,262 were killed and 2,285 injured in government-held areas, said the Syrian Health Ministry. Media reports also cited rescue workers as saying that at least 1,730 were killed and over 2,850 injured in the opposition-held region in Syria.
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Turkiye's southern province of Kahramanmaras at 4:17 am local time (0117 GMT), followed by a magnitude 6.4 quake a few minutes later in the country's southern province of Gaziantep and a magnitude 7.6 earthquake at 1:24 pm local time (1024 GMT) in Kahramanmaras Province.
On Wednesday, an 82-member Chinese rescue team arrived at Adana Airport in Turkiye at 4:30 am local time (0130 GMT) after flying over 8,000 km on a chartered Air China plane.
ANKARA - Turkiye is working to open two more border gates with Syria to enable the delivery of humanitarian aid to its neighbor which also suffers from massive earthquakes, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday.
"Cilvegozu border gate is open. We are working to open two more gates ... We also provide the necessary support for the aid to reach Syria," Cavusoglu told reporters at a joint news conference attended by Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay.
Meanwhile, the UN Secretary-General Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the road leading to the Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing from Turkiye to northern Syria was damaged, and the aid delivery to the rebel-held northwest was temporarily disrupted.
The United Nations is preparing a convoy to cross into Syria, but that would likely require a new agreement with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, Dujarric added.
Bab al-Hawa, across Turkiye's Cilvegozu gate, is the only crossing through which UN aid is allowed into the area.
A magnitude-7.7 earthquake struck Turkiye's southern province of Kahramanmaras at 4:17 am local time (0117 GMT), followed by a magnitude-7.6 quake at 1:24 pm local time (1024 GMT) in the same province.
The death toll from Monday's devastating earthquakes in southern Turkiye and northern Syria has surpassed 12,000.
Many countries and global aid agencies are offering rescue teams and relief supplies to quake-hit regions in Turkiye and Syria.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on Wednesday called on the United States to immediately lift its unilateral sanctions on Syria and "open the door to humanitarian aid".
Syria and neighboring Turkiye were jolted by two powerful earthquakes and multiple aftershocks on Monday, which have so far left more than 11,000 dead.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, a Washington-based civil rights organization, called on Monday for the immediate lifting of US sanctions on Syria, saying that these sanctions "severely restrict aid assistance to millions of Syrians".
US Department of State spokesman Ned Price, however, suggested on the same day that the US, which is providing "humanitarian assistance to partners on the ground", will not reach out to the Syrian government.
The earthquakes have left Syria, which has suffered war and turmoil for years, in a serious humanitarian crisis, Mao said on Wednesday, adding that the US is worsening the crisis.
Through its long-term involvement in the Syrian crisis, including frequent military interventions and harsh economic sanctions, the US has caused a large number of civilian casualties in a country where the people find it hard to access basic sustenance, she said.
The US military is still occupying Syria's main oil-producing area, has plundered more than 80 percent of the Middle Eastern country's oil output and smuggled or destroyed its food resources, according to Mao. She urged the US to give up its "geopolitical obsession" and help with disaster relief efforts in Syria.
The United Nations and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have called for emergency aid to disaster-stricken people in Syria following the earthquakes.
The death toll from devastating earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria neared 12,000 by Wednesday.
Video by Brian Chang.
A baby girl has been born in a collapsed building in the Syrian town of Jinderis, close to the Turkish border, following Monday's devastating earthquake.
British news website the Independent reported that she was found under debris with her umbilical cord still connecting to her mother, who was dead.
Search and rescue teams are still continuing their efforts to find survivors.
Video by Han Jing.
Quake: Team pledges to search for, rescue survivors
Civilian rescue workers across the nation are rushing to join China's official rescue team in earthquake-hit Turkiye, as the window of opportunity to find survivors amid the rubble narrows.
The mobilization of the civilian teams came as China increased its aid to quake-devastated Turkiye and neighboring Syria. The death toll in the two nations had reached more than 11,000 as of Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.
A magnitude-7.8 earthquake caused devastation in Turkiye and neighboring Syria at 4:17 am local time on Monday, and was followed by a magnitude-7.5 quake at 1:24 pm, along with hundreds of aftershocks.
China will provide Syria 30 million yuan ($4.4 million) in emergency aid, including $2 million in cash, the China International Development Cooperation Agency said on Wednesday. The agency announced on Tuesday it will send a first tranche of 40 million yuan in emergency aid to Turkiye.
Among the civilian teams that left for Turkiye on Wednesday was Blue Sky Rescue, a nonprofit Chinese search and rescue organization.
Forty-one members of the team departed from Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, shortly after midnight, and another 98 members left from Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, at noon, according to a media release from the organization.
The rescue workers who departed from Wuhan are from at least nine provincial-level regions, including Anhui, Jiangxi and Yunnan provinces as well as the Tibet autonomous region, said Su Qin, a team member from Hefei, capital of Anhui.
"We got in touch with Chinese chambers of commerce in Turkiye and local emergency management authorities," Su said, adding that they would meet them in Turkiye to discuss what help was needed.
Zhang Yupu, from Jiangsu province, said his team could be on the ground in Turkiye for 12 to 15 days, depending on how the situation develops.
"We will try our best to search for and rescue survivors," said Zhang, who also joined relief work after a magnitude-8 earthquake hit Wenchuan, Sichuan province, in 2008.
The Zhejiang Rescue Team of Ramunion has already sent a group of eight rescue experts to Turkiye.
A second group of 14 rescuers has also been dispatched and is expected to arrive on Thursday, according to the NGO.
The Amity Foundation has also sent a team of around 60 to Turkiye. The team will carry out rescue work and provide aid to the quake-affected victims, such as distributing clothes and food and helping to improve sanitation, said the Jiangsu-based NGO.
According to the Ministry of Emergency Management, the chartered flight for China's 82-member official rescue team, with 20 metric tons of disaster relief materials and equipment onboard, arrived at Adana in southern Turkiye at 4:30 am local time on Wednesday.
The rescue team was dispatched after a request for help from the Turkiye government. In addition to equipment for search and rescue work, communications and medical treatment, the team also has four rescue dogs.
Zhao Ming, head of the team, said they unloaded the equipment and aid materials immediately after landing for transportation to quake-hit areas.
The team will undertake tasks according to the developing situation on the ground and after consulting the Chinese embassy, local governments and United Nations bodies.
With certification from the UN as an international heavy urban search and rescue team, the Chinese team consists of high-quality, well-equipped personnel, said Wang Mo, the team's deputy head. "The team can carry out search and rescue operations simultaneously in two locations," he said.
Overseas branches of Chinese companies are also lending a helping hand.
Chinese machinery giant Xu-zhou Construction Machinery Group has mobilized employees of its branch in Turkiye to join the relief efforts.
Dozens of pieces of equipment, including excavators and loaders, have been deployed to help rescue survivors.
The first shipment of relief materials, such as blankets and hygiene products, had been sent to the earthquake-ravaged region, the company said.
Liu Kun in Wuhan and Xinhua contributed to this story.
BEIJING - China will provide emergency humanitarian aid worth 30 million yuan ($4.42 million) to Syria, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
The aid includes assistance of $2 million and relief materials urgently needed in the quake-hit country, spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a regular news briefing.
Meanwhile China is speeding up the implementation of an ongoing food aid program, she said.
In the ongoing food aid project, 220 tons of wheat are on their way to Syria, and the remaining 3,000 tons of rice and wheat will be shipped in two batches in the near future, according to China International Development Cooperation Agency.
Relevant Chinese authorities will work with the Syrian side to ensure that the above assistance is implemented as soon as possible, so as to help the Syrian side with earthquake relief and rescue work, Mao added.
ANKARA/DAMASCUS - The death toll from Monday's devastating earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria has surpassed 11,000, according to data released by authorities and rescuers.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during his visit to the worst-hit region on Wednesday that a total of 8,574 people in the country have died from the massive earthquakes.
Earlier, the country's disaster management agency said more than 40,000 people have been injured.
In Syria, at least 1,250 were killed and 2,054 injured, said the Syrian Health Ministry. Media reports also cited rescue workers as saying that at least 1,280 were killed and over 2,600 injured in the opposition-held region in Syria.
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Turkiye's southern province of Kahramanmaras at 4:17 am local time (0117 GMT), followed by a magnitude 6.4 quake a few minutes later in the country's southern province of Gaziantep and a magnitude 7.6 earthquake at 1:24 pm local time (1024 GMT) in the Kahramanmaras Province.
Rescuers were racing against time and a bitter cold to find survivors in Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of two huge and deadly earthquakes that struck Turkiye and Syria on Monday.
Many countries and global aid agencies are offering rescue teams and relief supplies to quake-hit regions.
An 82-member Chinese rescue team arrived at Adana Airport on Wednesday to assist in rescue efforts in the quake-hit areas in Türkiye after flying over 8,000 km on a chartered plane.
"Upon arrival, the team will bring audio and video life detectors, medical equipment and rescue dogs to the disaster area and immediately start the search and rescue work," said Wang Mo, deputy head of the Chinese rescue team.
While Syria is struggling harder amid the earthquakes, the US sanctions are still blocking humanitarian relief work in the country.
In a statement, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said that Syrians, while dealing with the earthquake catastrophe, are digging among rubbles with bare hands or using the simplest tools, as the equipment for removing the rubbles has been banned by the United States.
NANJING -- A 50-member Chinese civilian rescue team arrived in Turkiye on Wednesday to help rescue efforts following devastating earthquakes, with follow-up rescue forces on the move.
The first batch of the Blue Sky Rescue (BSR) team, a professional non-profit search-and-rescue organization, brought rescue dogs, rescue equipment and other necessary resources to support their work. Many of them have international rescue experience.
"Our normal work period is 12 to 15 days, but the actual time will be determined by the specific situation. We will try our best to search and rescue survivors," said Zhang Yupu, a BSR member from East China's Jiangsu province, who once participated in the Wenchuan earthquake relief in 2008.
The Amity Foundation, a Chinese non-governmental organization, has also sent a team of around 60 members to Turkiye.
The team will carry out rescue work and provide aid to the quake-affected victims, such as distributing clothes and food and helping to improve sanitation conditions, according to the Jiangsu-based foundation.
Overseas branches of Chinese companies are also lending a helping hand. Chinese machinery giant Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group has mobilized employees of its local branch in Turkiye to join in the relief efforts.
Dozens of equipment including excavators and loaders have been deployed to rescue survivors and the first batch of relief materials like blankets and hygiene products have been sent to the earthquake-ravaged region, the company said.
More than 8,000 people had been killed after strong earthquakes jolted parts of Turkiye and neighboring Syria on Monday, according to data released by authorities and rescuers.
Two days into the deadly earthquake, more countries joined the rescue and relief efforts underway in Syria and Turkiye.
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, has ordered an aid package totaling 100 million U.S. dollars for earthquake relief in Syria and Turkiye, which will split the aid equally, the Emirates News Agency reported on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the operation of an air bridge to provide various aid to help the earthquake victims in Syria and Turkiye.
The official Saudi Press Agency reported that the air bridge will provide health, shelter, food and logistical assistance to alleviate the effects of the earthquake on the Syrian and Turkish people.
Jordan, for its part, sent on Tuesday humanitarian aid and rescue teams to Syria and Turkiye to help search for survivors.
Lebanon, bordering Syria, also sent on Tuesday morning a delegation to its neighbor to assist the rescue operations in Syria.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi made separate phone calls to his Turkish and Syrian counterparts on Tuesday, extending his condolences to the victims of the deadly earthquakes. On the same day, Egypt sent five military planes loaded with medical supplies to both quake-stricken countries.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Tuesday also made separate phone calls to his Turkish and Syrian counterparts, expressing readiness to offer assistance for the relief efforts.
Iran has already sent three batches of humanitarian aid to Syria, Iranian Ambassador to Damascus Mehdi Sobhani was quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency as saying on Tuesday.
As the rescue effort was underway in quake-hit regions, the Syrian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday slammed the US sanctions for blocking the humanitarian work and rescue operations in the war-torn country.
In a statement, the ministry said that the Syrians, while dealing with the earthquake catastrophe, are digging among rubbles with their own hands or using the simplest tools as the equipment for removing the rubbles is banned by the US sanctions.
It also said that the Syrians are also denied access to medicines and medical equipment that would help them face dangers and diseases.
Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) President Khaled Hboubati on Tuesday called for lifting the US and Western sanctions on Syria to facilitate relief efforts as the country is in dire need of rescue equipment.
Speaking at a press conference in Damascus, the Syrian capital, Hboubati stressed that the SARC needs equipment, ambulances and heavy machinery, but "the main obstacle is the sanctions imposed on Syria, which we demand to be lifted immediately."
The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday called on different countries to pressure the US to lift the sanctions on Syria.
The ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani made the remarks in an exclusive interview with the semi-official Mehr news agency on Monday, parts of which were released on Tuesday.
He urged other countries to force the US to lift the siege of the Arab state so that international humanitarian aid can be delivered to the quake-stricken people without any obstacle and at the shortest time.
ISTANBUL - The death toll from a massive earthquake that struck Turkiye and Syria rose to more than 8,700 on Wednesday, official data showed, with rescue workers racing to reach trapped survivors.
Officials and medics said 6,234 people had died in Turkiye and 2,470 in Syria, bringing the total to 8,704.
AFP
SANLIURFA, Turkiye - Rescuers in Turkiye and Syria battled bitter cold Tuesday in a race against time to find survivors under buildings flattened by an earthquake that killed more than 7,300 people.
The latest toll showed 5,434 people killed in Turkiye and at least 1,872 in Syria, for a combined total of 7,306 fatalities.
There are fears that the toll will rise inexorably, with WHO officials estimating up to 20,000 may have died.
WHO warned that up to 23 million people could be affected by the massive earthquake and urged nations to rush help to the disaster zone.
The UN's cultural agency UNESCO also said it was ready to provide assistance after two sites listed on its World Heritage list in Syria and Turkiye sustained damage.
In addition to the damage to Aleppo's old city and the fortress in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, UNESCO said at least three other World Heritage sites could be affected.
AFP
A chartered flight carrying China's official rescue team and 20 metric tons of disaster relief materials and equipment has arrived at Adana, Turkiye.
The team, which consists of 82 members, reached the city at 3:30 am and will soon take part in search and rescue operations, according to a report from China Central Television.
In addition to materials and equipment for search and rescue, communication and medical treatment, the team also brought four rescue dogs, it said.
They will first participate in a joint consultation with the local government, the Chinese embassy and United Nations bodies to learn about their key tasks and find a location to serve as their temporary command headquarters, it said.
Aside from undertaking search and rescue missions, the team will also provide medical aid, carry out disaster assessment and build mobile hospitals, the report said.
Dispatched by the Ministry of Emergency Management, the team won a certification from the United Nations for its ability to roll out urban search and rescue operations with heavy equipment in 2019.
