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Turkey Syria earthquake: UAE mosques to hold absentee funeral prayers for victims
Mosques across the United Arab Emirates will hold absentee funeral prayers for the victims of a major earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria, the country’s President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed announced on Thursday.
The president directed that the prayers be held after the Friday prayers in all mosques across the country, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.
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As of Friday morning, more than 21,000 people have died in the 7.8-magnitude quake that hit northern Syria and southwest Turkey, and officials say the death toll is expected to keep rising in the coming days.
Rescue teams – including ones from Saudi Arabia and the UAE – continued to scour through the rubble of collapsed buildings hoping to find any survivors in a race against time.
Cold, hunger and despair gripped hundreds of thousands of people left homeless in the middle of winter by the region’s deadliest earthquake in decades.
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