Turkish hospital car park becomes makeshift morgue after quake
Rania Zaboubi scours body bags laid out in the car park of a hospital in southern Turkey in search of her uncle who went missing after Monday’s massive earthquake.
She says in a voice that is choked, “We found my aunt, but not my uncle.”
The tragedy that has already killed at least 16,000 people in Turkey and Syria has, according to the Syrian refugee, resulted in the deaths of eight members of her family.
Other survivors were also going from corpse to corpse in the parking lot of the main hospital in Antakya, a large city in Turkey’s Hatay province, looking for people they knew.
On Wednesday evening, journalists from the AFP counted nearly 200 bodies arranged on either side of tents.
More than a quarter of those reported dead in Turkey thus far were in Hatay, where at least 3,356 people perished.
The vast parking lot is full to capacity due to the magnitude of the disaster. Seven bodies were laid at the foot of a waste container that was overflowing because there was nowhere else to put them.
On one side of the hospital, there are huge cracks. Despite the fact that it is still standing, authorities have decided to move it.
The building’s interior has also been damaged, making it impossible to accommodate patients, both living and deceased.
Patients are treated in red and white tents, and according to the severity of their injuries, they are assigned one of three colors. Anonymous bodies
Many of them were flown by helicopter to hospitals that were able to withstand the shaking, many of which went to Adana.
However, the deceased are stranded on the icy asphalt.
Since Monday, how many have been brought there? Too many, according to volunteer Yigitcan Kayserili, who is from Ankara. 400, maybe, maybe 600.”
Kayserili offers psychological support as well as assistance in locating deceased families. He hasn’t gone to bed in two days.
Incessant activity can be heard in the parking lot.
A man and his son, a teenager with curly hair, lift a body to his right and then move on without showing any emotion.
A man drives slowly behind them in an old blue sedan. He has also discovered the body he was looking for, which is in a black bag on the back seat. The left door is open so that the body’s legs can be seen.
Nearby is a long white truck parked. It is not being used to transport aid, in contrast to many other vehicles traveling to Antakya. Instead, it is moving bodies that have not been identified.
Kayserili asserts, “About 70% of the bodies here are anonymous.”
After a period of 24 hours, those who have not been found are loaded onto a truck and taken to mass graves.
Kayserili asserts, “We can fit 50 bodies inside.” We could stack them, but we don’t want to.”
