Alya Kohyo has been given the number 792. The tiny white bundle lies close to what may have been her parents. Alya cannot have been more than a year old when her tiny body was crushed under the building blocks. Everyone who comes in gets a number. They use fingerprints to find relatives. Familiars searching for theirs go from blanket to blanket and look at faces. They go on if they don’t recognize the face. Collapsing in tears certainly does. The rescue team and the volunteers try as best they can to keep order in the chaos with the many dead. Photo: Åse Marit Befring / news Working around the clock With thousands of dead, times are tough for those who work to identify and bury them. – Yesterday we had 600 dead here. I don’t know how many there will be today. It depends on how many the rescue workers manage to get out of the building masses. This is what Samet Gumus tells news outside the sports hall in Kahramanmaraş in Turkey. Samet Gumus is one of the volunteers who helps with the work. Photo: Åse Marit Befring / news He has signed up for service as an aid worker and now works almost around the clock. Yesterday he only slept for two hours. The city of Kahramanmaraş is located close to the epicenter. The sports hall is one of the few undamaged buildings in the city. Here the dead are transported after they have been taken out of the ruins. The impressions are strong and the momentum is great. – A mother tried to give her child a heart massage. It really resonated with me. I myself have a two-year-old daughter. I thought of her. Such experiences affect you, says Gumus. It is a heavy task that the volunteers have taken on, praying person after person to the final resting place. Photo: Åse Marit Befring / news From the mortuary to the cemetery The large number of dead means that relatives have been asked to retrieve the bodies as quickly as possible. If they do not find relatives within 24 hours, the dead are placed in the grave by the aid workers. According to Islamic custom, one must die in the earth during the first day of death. Those who have not been identified are also sent by guards to be buried in the ground. A large area on the outskirts of the city has been turned into a cemetery. There is now a shuttle service from the mortuary to the cemetery. Here, too, applicants open the body bags in the hope of getting an answer. – I’m looking for someone who was close to me, says the man who checks bag after bag. Pins and numbers without names Each deceased is marked with a pin. Pins and numbers without names are lined up one by one in the dirt pile. The relatives mark the pins so that they can later find theirs. The area set aside for the graves is enormous. Sadly, they think everything will be filled up. A dead man is dragged to his final resting place. Photo: Åse Marit Befring / news Each deceased is marked with a stick. With or without the name on. Photo: Åse Marit Befring / news The grave sites are set up in a row. Photo: Åse Marit Befring / news – I have lost my son and daughter-in-law. The two grandchildren are still under the building blocks, says an elderly man at the graves. – You have to experience this to be able to understand. I can’t describe it, he says, calm and understanding. The burials follow closely one another. They have continued almost continuously since the earthquake hit the city. They try to give the dead a last prayer. Photo: Åse Marit Befring / news Joy in Kahramanmaraş:
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The sports arena has turned into a morgue in Turkey – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
