Austria Halts Turkey Quake Rescue Operations

The Austrian army suspended rescue operations in quake-ravaged Turkey due to a worsening "security situation", a spokesman revealed on Saturday.

"There have been clashes between groups," the spokesman told AFP without giving details.

He pointed out that the 82 soldiers from the Austrian Forces Disaster Relief Unit were sheltering in the southern Hatay province "in a base camp with other international organizations, awaiting instructions."

They arrived in Hatay on Tuesday with 45 tonnes of equipment and were able to rescue nine people from the rubble, according to the official. He added that they were set to return to Austria on Thursday but this is being reviewed.

The 7.8-magnitude tremor claimed more than 24,000 lives in Turkey and neighboring Syria.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan affirmed that the deadly earthquake was the biggest disaster they had experienced in the last century.

“This is the biggest disaster we’ve experienced in the last century after the 1939 Erzincan earthquake,” Erdoğan said, citing an incident in which more than 32,000 people were killed in eastern Turkey.