Two More Bodies Found In Trabzon Avalanche Tragedy

Two more bodies, in addition to the three previously found, were unearthed on Monday under the snow from an avalanche that hit the province of Trabzon; there are now two more bodies that need to be uncovered.

The avalanche took place on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. when five workers were repairing a broken generator at the Balkondu-2 HES construction site for a tunnel in Trabzon's Çaykara district, near the Trabzon-Bayburt provincial border.

The first body, that of Nusret Er, was found on the day of the incident by rescue teams, and the bodies of Can Özyürek and Muhammet Işıklı were found and identified on Monday evening. The bodies of Lokman Çelik and Erhan Arslan are still being searched for by the Prime Ministry's Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) teams.

Construction site of tunnel was moved

News has also surfaced that the location of the tunnel that was being constructed was actually moved, and that its original location was in fact in a safer position in terms of avalanche risk. Two villagers had previously lost their lives in the area that the tunnel was moved to, according to Abdullah Sevin, the headman of Köknar village, where the avalanche took place. Sevin also shared that he had told the Provincial Directorate of Environment and Urbanization and the Prime Ministry Coordination Center (BİMER) of the dangerous conditions in the area.

Sevin criticized the private company that has been funding the HES project, saying: “How geological engineers allow construction here, I do not know. We have heard that the parent company actually wanted the tunnel to be finished as soon as possible in order to begin impoundment. I asked the figures in authority at the site, 'Who is keeping these people under these conditions?' They told me that they had received instructions to do so [continue the work] and that the work needed to be finished in time.”

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)