A 66-year-old woman from the municipality of Heusden-Zolder, in the province of Limburg in Flanders, died in the earthquakes that rocked Turkey and Syria on Monday, RTL Info reports. The woman was on holiday with her son in the Turkish province of Hatay, in the southeast of the country.
The building where the woman and her son were staying collapsed. The son was fortunately saved from the rubble. “The death of Mrs Remziye Dinç is confirmed,” the alderman of Hesden-Zolder, Engin Ozdemir, announced on Thursday. “Rescuers managed to extract her from the rubble, but she died of her injuries on the way to the hospital.
Flags outside the municipality will be flown at half-mast in solidarity with the victim’s family. The municipal administration will also open a book of condolences.
The death of the Belgian national has yet to be confirmed by Turkish authorities. Belgium’s FPS Foreign Affairs have “no information concerning injured or deceased Belgians” following the earthquakes at this stage, according to Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib.
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There are 230 Belgians registered with the embassy in Ankara who have been located in the affected regions, as well 55 through the consular register in Beirut (responsible for Syria), and eight who were registered online. Belgian authorities were able to contact these individuals.
Twenty-eight Belgians still cannot be reached. Lahbib assures that the authorities were still trying to contact them. At the time of publication, almost 20,000 people have been killed by the earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday. Turkish authorities have reported at least 16,546 deaths, while Syrian authorities report 3,162.
