Death toll after avalanche in Turkey reaches 38

At least 38 people, many of them rescuers, have been killed and dozens are feared trapped after two avalanches near Turkey’s eastern border with Iran, authorities say.

More than 100 rescue workers had been sent to Van province in eastern Turkey to try and reach two people believed to be still buried after an avalanche on Tuesday evening hit the area, killing five, Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said in a statement.

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. That snowslide killed five people and left two missing. Around noon Wednesday, the team was struck by the second avalanche.

Turkey’s emergency and disaster management agency, AFAD, said 26 bodies were recovered from the mass of snow on the steep slope. Earlier Governor Mehmet Emin Bilmez said eight military police officers, three government-paid village guards, three firefighters and nine volunteers were among the dead.

CNN / Euronews