Syria seeks to treat, search for earthquake survivors
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Loading... - Joan Davidson
- 07 Feb 2023
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Syrians who managed to survive the deadly earthquake on Monday are receiving treatment in hospitals, as they mourn the losses of their loved ones.
At a hospital in Syria, Osama Abdel Hamid was holding back tears as he recalled on Monday the powerful earthquake that toppled his home and killed his neighbors, along with hundreds of his compatriots.
"We were fast asleep when we felt a huge earthquake," Abdel Hamid told Agence France-Presse (AFP) at al-Rahma hospital in the northwestern Idlib province, where he was being treated for a head injury.
The magnitude 7.8-pre-dawn quake, whose epicenter was Türkiye's Kahramanmaraş province, wiped out entire sections of cities in Türkiye and war-ravaged Syria.
Officials have put the combined death toll at more than 2,300.
When the quake shook the Abdel Hamid family's home in the village of Azmarin, near Syria's border with Türkiye, "I woke up my wife and children and we ran toward the exit door," the man said.
"We opened the door, and suddenly the entire building collapsed."
Within moments, Abdel Hamid found himself under the rubble of the four-story building.
All of his neighbors died, but the family made it out alive.
"The walls collapsed over us, but my son was able to get out," Abdel Hamid said. "He started screaming and people gathered around, knowing there were survivors, and they pulled us out from under the rubble."
They were taken to the hospital in Darkush, a town several kilometers to the south along the Turkish border, located in the last main opposition-held bastion of Idlib. Read More…
