HATAYSPOR player Christian Atsu and the club’s director Taner Savut have been left under the rubble after the devastating earthquake that rocked Turkey and Syria today, according to reports.
Yeni Malatyaspor goalkeeer Ahmet Türkaslan is also missing, according to the club’s assistant coach İlhan Var, who said: “We have not found our goalkeeper Ahmet Eyüp Türkaslan yet. There are no signs right now. His wife came out and described where he could be.”
Atsu, 31, is a former Chelsea and Newcastle United forward from Ghana, who joined Hatayspor on a free transfer from Saudi Arabian club Al-Raed last September.
Incidentally, the Black Stars winger scored his first Super Lig goal of the season yesterday in Hatayspor’s 1-0 win over Kasimpasa.
The rescue team has reportedly been rescued four people in the Hatayspor team, with Atsu, Murat Bel and Savut the ones still missing.
A huge earthquake killed about 1,700 people and injured thousands more today in central Turkey and northwest Syria, flattening apartment blocks and heaping more destruction on Syrian cities already devastated by years of war.
The magnitude 7.8 quake, which hit early in the morning in bitter winter weather, was the worst to strike Turkey this century. It was followed in the early afternoon by another large quake of magnitude 7.7.
It was not immediately clear how much damage had been done by the second quake, which like the first was felt across the region and endangered rescuers struggling to pull casualties from the rubble, often using their bare hands to remove masonry.
In Syria, which has already been wrecked by more than 11 years of civil war, the health ministry said about 430 people had been killed and more than 1,000 injured. In the Syrian rebel-held northwest, a United Nations spokesperson said 255 people had died.
