A resident stands covered with a blanket in front of his collapsed building as rescue teams carry out search operations at Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras on February 11, 2023, after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country鈥檚 southeast earlier in the week. AFP
KAHRAMANMARAS, Turkey 鈥� Tuba Yolcu is desperate for news of her missing aunt and scours a sports hall where victims of a powerful earthquake that hit her hometown in Turkey lie in body bags.
鈥淲e hear (the authorities) will no longer keep the bodies waiting after a certain period of time, they say they will take them and bury them,鈥� she said.
鈥淕od willing we will find her,鈥� Yolcu said, with worry etched on her face.
Monday鈥檚 7.8-magnitude tremor struck Kahramanmaras in the country鈥檚 southeast, unleashing catastrophe in the region and Syria, killing at least 28,000 people.
Anguished families flock to sports halls, hospital morgues or cemeteries in the severely hit city 鈥� where bodies are piling up 鈥� in a bid to find their missing relatives.
鈥淓very unidentified body will eventually be returned to their family,鈥� a prosecutor said, trying to soothe the families.
鈥淒on鈥檛 worry, blood samples are taken from each and every missing body,鈥� he assured.
Families 鈥� who cannot reach their loved ones during the rescue work 鈥� check one by one bodies either in bags or wrapped in blankets.
鈥淲e show the faces to their immediate relatives,鈥� a crime scene investigator in a hazmat suit told AFP at a large grave outside the city.
Funeral cars deliver a stream of bodies, burying them one by one.
鈥淚f the identity is unknown, we take fingerprints and tooth samples and compare them with their relatives,鈥� said the investigator, who carries a camera around his neck.
About 2,000 bodies have been identified at the cemetery, which is filled with freshly dug graves.
鈥楲et鈥檚 go back鈥�
Next to the wooden headstones at the makeshift cemetery, where some are wrapped by scarves, people mourn their relatives.
One woman sits near the grave, unable to stop crying.
Missing bodies are stored lower down, where investigators take pictures and notes.
Yusuf Sekman, from the religious affairs directorate, said the unidentified bodies are also divided according to where their collapsed building was located.
This allows relatives to 鈥渁lso look, based on the recovered body鈥檚 address鈥�, he said.
鈥淭heir samples are taken, and noted down on body bags鈥� to help with identification.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Friday he hoped the missing bodies would be identified and said the government was doing everything it could.
鈥淲e upload unidentified patients鈥� photographs to a special software in order to match,鈥� Koca said.
Unfortunately for Yolcu, her aunt was not at the sports hall since an official said all the bodies have been identified.
When the quake struck, her aunt was in the city but Yolcu was in a village.
鈥淲e cannot find her body,鈥� she said, adding that she won鈥檛 stop looking.
As she stepped out of the hall, she turned back to her husband and said: 鈥淟et鈥檚 return to the rubble鈥�, hoping that perhaps her aunt had yet to be pulled out.
RELATED STORIES
Family of Filipina quake victim in Turkey thanks gov鈥檛 for repatriation of her remains
Turkey-Syria quake deaths pass 28,000, millions in need of aid