Panicked, Bangladeshi nationals in Turkey city take shelter in mosque

Panic-stricken 15 Bangladeshi nationals, including a family with a child, living in Turkey's Gaziantep are now living in a mosque – along with many Turkish people – after the devastating earthquake of Monday.

They woke up at midnight in their homes in the city, feeling the heavy jolts of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake and found themselves in the middle of rubble.

Later, they rushed to the mosque as the city, near the epicentre of the quake, continued to experience a series of aftershocks.

"The child is traumatised," Mobassera Jahan Fatima, PhD candidate at the Department of Journalism, Ankara University, who has been in contact with the Bangladeshi nationals in Gaziantep, told The Business Standard.

"They are not getting enough food…I talked with several Bangladeshi students living in Gaziantep on Tuesday morning. They said they are safe now. But the panic persists as there are still aftershocks," she added.

Hafizz Muhammad, a Bangladeshi research student of journalism at the Ankara Haci Byram Veli University, told TBS, "So far, around 285 aftershocks have been felt in Turkey after the earthquake. We are living in extreme panic."

The powerful earthquake rocked Turkey and Syria early Monday toppling hundreds of buildings and killing more than 5,000 people.

Hafizz said, "My wife Farjana has been living here with me for six months. She is traumatised seeing the devastation caused by the earthquake. Our families in Bangladesh are also very anxious about us. We are really going through terrible psychological pressure."

The Bangladeshi mission in Turkey has been in touch with Bangladeshi students after the earthquake, he added.

"It has been snowing in Ankara for several days. The weather conditions are very bad. Rescue work is being hampered in the cities that have been hit the hardest by the earthquake due to the unfavourable weather," said Hafizz.

Md Nazmul Islam, Bangladeshi citizen and assistant professor at the Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University, told TBS, "About 2,000 Bangladeshis live in Turkey legally. But if we count the undocumented ones, the number would be at least 5,000.

"Most Bangladeshis here are students. Besides, there are also some university teachers and researchers."

Nazmul added that there has been no damage in Ankara although the earthquake was felt there.

"The earthquake has been most severely felt in the south-eastern parts of Turkey which are now almost isolated. There is a city named Hatay, which has still been unreachable," he added.

Meanwhile, a Bangladeshi student named Md Golam Syed Rinku from Bogura who was missing after the earthquake has been rescued in a critical condition on Tuesday.

Rinku's friends said he is an undergraduate student but could not provide any more details.

Another missing Bangladeshi student named Nur has also been found, reported UNB.