ANKARA, Turkey, Feb 5: An avalanche slammed into a mountain road in eastern Turkey on Wednesday, wiping out a huge team of rescue workers sent to find two people missing in an earlier avalanche. Officials said eight rescue workers were killed and an estimated 15 others were buried under the snow.
Wednesday’s avalanche increased the overall death toll from the disaster to 13.
Some 300 emergency service workers were called to a highway near the mountain-surrounded town of Bahcesaray in Van province, which borders Iran, after an avalanche struck late Tuesday, killing five people. Around noon Wednesday, the team was struck by the second avalanche.
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Meki Arvas, mayor of Bahcesaray, said eight rescuers’ bodies were recovered from the mass of snow on the steep slope. Emergency teams were searching for up to 15 colleagues still buried.
Some 30 emergency workers were either rescued or escaped from under the snow and were hospitalized Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said. There was no further information on their conditions.
Video from the scene showed at least three overturned vehicles at the bottom of a hill during a snow storm. Some rescuers were climbing a steep incline to get away from the mass of snow while others dug frantically into the snow with shovels and pick-axes. Fog, heavy snow and strong winds were hampering the rescue efforts.
The first avalanche buried a snow-clearing vehicle and a minibus. The vehicle’s operator and seven passengers escaped alive.
The state-run Anadolu Agency said the operator, Bahattin Karagulle, was trapped beneath the snow for 25 minutes before he managed to break a window and escape. He told the agency he walked toward a village before he was picked up by a vehicle and managed to seek help.
