PAZARCIK, Türkiye: In the Turkish town of Pazarcik, a soccer pitch has been turned into a burial ground for people killed by the earthquake which struck 11 days ago. The goal posts are still standing but the field is dotted with about 100 dirt mounds and ditches. Each freshly dug grave is topped with a wo
PAZARCIK, Türkiye: In the Turkish town of Pazarcik, a soccer pitch has been turned into a burial ground for people killed by the earthquake which struck 11 days ago. The goal posts are still standing but the field is dotted with about 100 dirt mounds and ditches.
A red scarf had been wrapped around the wooden plank at a nearby grave. Pine branches had been scattered over another. Tents had been erected to perform Islamic burial rituals, and to wrap the bodies in a shroud. Empty coffins, sent from all over Türkiye, were piled high. A Muslim cleric stood ready to perform the rituals.
"No one should think that what is necessary is not being done. Look here: our friends carried out around 10,000 burials. It is not possible to spend hours on each one, so the process is carried out in a sped up way," the official, Burhan İşleyen, said in an interview with Turkish broadcaster A Haber.
They were among hundreds of people believed to have died in a building complex called the Ronesans Rezidans, or Renaissance Residence, when it collapsed in the city of Antakya.
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