While the search for possible survivors continues unabated, the toll of the devastating earthquake between Syria and Turkey is worsening by the hour.
It has risen to more than 11,200 dead , according to the latest official reports: 8,574 in Turkey , announced Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who visited the city of Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of the earthquake, while 2,662 bodies were pulled from the rubble in Syria .
Tens of thousands injured, the death toll still unknown. "Get us out", is the cry of thousands of people who, buried under the rubble, find the strength to call for help . Lives for who knows how long, they send voice notes, videos, location to relatives and friends.
Despite bad weather and aftershocks, at least 8,000 people have been rescued in Turkey, Vice President Fuat Oktay said. No one can say exactly how many are missing under the rubble, but the WHO, by mapping the terrible tremors that have ripped hundreds of kilometers of the earth's crust, has hazarded an estimate of 23 million people somehow involved .
And we still see rescues that smack of a miracle: in Syria a girl of about 8 years old was saved after being trapped under the rubble for 40 hours .
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared a state of emergency for three months in the 10 provinces of southeastern Turkey. Those who survived and know that there are relatives and friends under the rubble cannot rest. "They let us die", is the cry of a woman in Antioch in the ruins of an apartment building where people dig with their bare hands. And another, Cagla Ezer, said sobbing that she heard her brother begging for her name from the ruins of the apartment building where she lived. "There were 25 people in that building alone," he explained. "I tried to call AFAD", Turkey's emergency coordination group, "but no one came".
But Erdogan does not deny himself, it is forbidden to criticize the "Sultan" and the relief machine . The Police are using a tough fist even in this dramatic moment: four people were arrested for some posts on social networks that argued with the delays in rescue operations : they are accused of being "provocateurs who aimed to create fear and panic".
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His name is Angelo Zen, he is 60 years old and is originally from Saronno but has been living in Veneto for about twenty years, in Maerne di Martellago (Venice) , the missing Italian.
He was on business in Kahramanmaras, a Turkish city of one million inhabitants, the epicenter of the earthquake, razed to the ground by the quake. After the last contact on Sunday evening, a few hours before the earthquake, there is no more news of him. Mirko, one of the two sons, confirms that no one is able to hear him anymore . His cell phone is silent. They don't know if he is miraculously saved, if he is injured, perhaps taken to a hospital, or really missing.
' Right now it's just untraceable, we don't know where it was during the earthquake. Before giving news it is better to be very cautious», said the minister Antonio Tajani , recalling that in the area «there are no telephone or internet connections. It's hard to find one person in a city of a million people."
Angelo Zen had been traveling the world for years - often it was in Turkey - to ensure the maintenance of the machinery used by the goldsmith companies. He himself had been an employee of a goldsmith company in Bassano. Then he had taken the plunge: he had set up on his own, and thanks to his great experience he had been successful.
(Unioneonline/L)