A plane carrying relief items for earthquake victims landed in southern Turkey on Sunday. The plane, loaded with 1,200 winter and fire-resistant tents, departed from Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore, and landed at Adana Airport.
The tents have been sent by the Pakistani government as part of a special cargo flight operation to transport 50,000 tents, a state broadcaster reported. Three ships carrying nearly 13,600 winter tents are also headed to Turkiye and will arrive in Mersin province later this month.
Rana Tanveer, the federal education minister, was present to see off the first plane, which had already arrived in Adana, on Saturday. Both flights are a part of a special air bridge operation that will send tents to Turkiye using more than 34 chartered cargo planes.
More than 45,000 people have died in Turkey as a result of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that occurred on February 6 and its aftershocks, and more than 5,000 people have died in neighbouring Syria.
The terrible earthquake that destroyed entire cities was projected by the World Bank to have cost Turkiye about $34 billion in damage, with the cost of recovery likely to be double that amount.
Pakistan was among the first countries to send search and rescue teams to Turkey, as the government immediately dispatched a 33-member Pakistan Army Urban Search and Rescue Team after last month’s earthquake.