Ünal Boybey and his family were left on their own to dig the bodies of their relatives out of the rubble in the devastated Turkish city of Adıyaman. Then they also dug the graves.
“Normally municipal workers would do this,” said the 63-year-old as he watched two younger relatives shovel clumps of rust red earth at the city’s overflowing New Cemetery. “But they don’t have enough people. And there are so many bodies. We’re having to do it all on our own.”
Adıyaman, a city of 300,000 people set against snowy mountains, has suffered appalling damage from the huge 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey and neighbouring Syria on Monday. Countless buildings have been flattened, thousands have been killed and food and shelter is in short supply. The state is struggling to cope.