ANKARA: An avalanche slammed into a mountain road in eastern Turkey on Wednesday, wiping out a huge team of rescue workers sent to find people missing in an earlier avalanche. Officials said 33 emergency workers were killed, 53 were injured and others are still buried under the snow.
Wednesday’s avalanche increased the overall death toll from the disaster to 38.
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 snow slide killed five people and left two missings. Around noon Wednesday, the team was struck by the second avalanche.
Turkey’s emergency and disaster management agency, AFAD, said 33 bodies were recovered from the mass of snow on the steep slope. Earlier, Gov. Mehmet Emin Bilmez said the dead included eight military police officers, three government-paid village guards, three firefighters and nine volunteers
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