At least 33 rescue workers killed and 53 injured during search for missing from earlier snowslide

This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

At least 33 rescue workers have been killed and 53 injured after a second avalanche came down on a mountain road in eastern Turkey, striking emergency teams sent to find people missing after an earlier snowslide.

The second avalanche on Wednesday increased the overall death toll to 38.

About 300 emergency service workers had been called to a highway near the mountain-surrounded town of Bahçesaray in Van province, which borders Iran, after an avalanche struck the area late on Tuesday, killing five people and leaving two missing.

The rescue team was struck by the second avalanche on Wednesday afternoon. Turkey’s emergency and disaster management agency, AFAD, said 33 bodies had been recovered from the mass of snow on the steep slope. The governor of Van province, Mehmet Emin Bilmez, said eight military police officers, three government-paid village guards, three firefighters and nine volunteers were among the dead.

Emergency teams were still searching for colleagues under the snow, Bilmez said. He did not provide a figure for how many more could be missing.

About 30 emergency workers were in hospital after either being pulled out of the heap of snow or escaping by themselves on Wednesday, Turkey’s interior ministry said. There was no further information on their conditions.

Video from the scene showed at least three overturned vehicles at the bottom of a hill in a snowstorm. Some rescuers were climbing a steep incline to get out of the mass of snow while others dug frantically into the snow with shovels and pickaxes. Fog, heavy snow and strong winds were hampering the rescue efforts.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rescue teams at the scene of the avalanche on Wednesday. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/via Getty Images

The head of AFAD’s operations in Van province, Osman Ucar, was among those injured. Speaking from his hospital bed, he said he was dragged along with an excavator that was toppled by the sliding snow.

“I was half-buried,” he said, adding that he escaped on his own.

The first avalanche buried a snow-clearing vehicle and a minibus, the driver of which escaped along with seven passengers.

The state-run Anadolu news agency said the driver, Bahattin Karaguülle, was trapped beneath the snow for 25 minutes before he managed to break a window and escape. He told the agency he walked toward a village to get help before being picked up.