Turks loot lorries carrying aid for earthquake victims

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Turkish Red Crescent said that 17 lorries carrying aid for the Turkish earthquake victims have been looted.

Local officials in the city of Van said that survivors, furious at not receiving supplies, had raided the convoy for food and blankets, BBC reported.

In the worst-hit town of Ercis, thieves stopped a lorry carrying tents. Two more people were pulled alive from the rubble on Wednesday, October 26, but hopes are fading that more survivors will be found.

More than 480 people are known to have died in the October 23 earthquake, but the Red Crescent believes that hundreds are still trapped under the rubble, feared dead. Rescue workers are trying to get food and blankets to survivors as temperatures plummet in the mountainous region.

Thousands of people - who have been left homeless - are spending a fourth night in freezing weather conditions and snow.

Turkey has said it will accept offers of aid from foreign countries to cope with the aftermath of the earthquake, after initially declining offers of help.