Death, disease, and desperation: Life in Antakya after the earthquake

The earthquake which hit Turkey and Syria on 6 February was a cataclysm of unprecedented proportions, and the worst in 100 years. 

Turkey's southern city of Antakya - and its people - are among the hardest hit. It was once an important trading centre and the Roman Empire’s third-largest city. But the devastating earthquakes have left almost nothing in this city unscathed.

Kasim Gündüz is a local resident. His family has been torn apart by the catastrophe.

"My wife’s name is Shefika, I called her my gulum (rose). I called Shefika! Shefika! And I didn't hear anything back. We were married for 52 years," he said.

Kasim told Euronews he is now waiting for what will probably be his wife’s remains. His son’s body has been retrieved from the rubble and is in a plastic bag nearby. His entire world is gone.

“I have been helping. I got my sister-in-law’s dead body out. Her head was gone," explained fellow Antakya resident Mehmet Elmaci. "My brother-in-law and their little daughter are still in there.”

Antakya was founded in 300 BC and had seen its fair share of disasters. It was destroyed and rebuilt many times during the past centuries. 

But when the region was struck by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake, it caught everyone off guard. Several days into the tragedy, help was still slow to arrive.

Mehmet is himself a survivor but says he doesn’t remember how he managed to get out of the rubble. He told Euronews that since the earthquake, he’s had to sleep in his car with his wife and their 7-month-old son.

Without electricity, water, or sanitation, those who survived the earthquake are at great risk. Infectious diseases such as scabies and cholera are spreading fast and aftershocks occur every day.

In the first few hours following the earthquake,