Ghanaian professional footballer Christian Atsu (31) has been pulled alive from under the rubble after the severe earthquake in Turkey. The wing attacker, who scored the winning goal in the home match against Kasimpasa in the Turkish Süper Lig yesterday, was taken to hospital.
LOOK. Hatayspor coach Volkan Demirel and wife Zeynep Sever (ex-Miss Belgium) share video message in tears
More than 1,500 people have been killed and thousands injured in a strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 in southern Turkey, both in Turkey and in neighboring Syria. Footballer Christian Atsu also ended up under the rubble, but he has since been freed.
Atsu is a former flank attacker of Chelsea, Newcastle and Vitesse Arnhem and moved to Turkey and Hatayspor last summer. In sixty international matches he scored ten times for Ghana and yesterday he crowned his substitute against Kasimpasa with the winner in minute 97. A day later, everyone at the club from southeastern Turkey – the area that was heavily affected by the earthquake – is in mourning . Several Hatayspor players were saved. Also Atsu.
Former international Volkan Demirel is the coach of Hatayspor. The former goalkeeper, together with his wife Zeynep Sever, ex-Miss Belgium, has made an emotional appeal to send as much aid as possible to the affected area. “I want as much help as possible to be sent, please. It also applies to people from the surrounding area, not just in Hatay. Please, I beg you. For God’s sake, please,” he says, crying.
LOOK. Hatayspor coach Volkan Demirel and wife Zeynep Sever (ex-Miss Belgium) share video message in tears
UEFA also sympathizes with Turkey and Syria. “The thoughts of UEFA and the European football community are with the people of Turkey and Syria and all those affected by this devastating earthquake,” the European Football Association wrote on Twitter.
UEFA
@UEFA
The Turkish Football Federation has postponed this week’s matches in the national leagues. On Monday, three games in the highest division were scheduled, but they are cancelled. A match has also been canceled at the second level.
The state channel TRT already showed images of people being rescued in Iskenderun and also from Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Osmaniye and Adana there were images of victims being taken away, sometimes wrapped in blankets. Then rescuers find the dead, then the living, then the dead again. Joy and sorrow follow each other again and again.
Residents of affected Turkish cities themselves also share images of search and rescue and of destroyed buildings with the hashtag ‘#DEPREMOLDU’ (#ERWASEENEARTHBEVING). Victims trapped under the rubble and still able to do it use their phones to ask for help via social media.
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