MADRID, 6 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Ghanaian midfielder Christian Atsu, a former Málaga, Chelsea and Newclastle footballer, is among the people missing after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale registered this Monday in southern Turkey, near the border with Syria, Turkish media reports.
Atsu, 30 years old and now in the ranks of Hatayspor in the Turkish Super League, could find himself, along with sports director Taner Savut, among the rubble of one of thousands of buildings collapsed after the earthquake, from where others have already been rescued alive. two players and two members of the team’s coaching staff.
Precisely, the Ghanaian midfielder, who is going through his first season in the Ottoman entity, scored Hatayspor’s winning goal against Kasimpasa (1-0) on Sunday.
Málaga, the team to which he was on loan from Chelsea in 2016, expressed concern about the state of their former footballer. “Turkish media reports that Christian Atsu, a former Malaguista player, is trapped under rubble after a 7.7 degree earthquake. Our thoughts are with him and his family in these moments of terrible anguish,” he said on the social network Twitter .
The balance of deaths caused by the earthquake amounts to about 1,800, according to data provided by the authorities of Turkey, Syria and the ‘white helmets’, although it is feared that the number may increase in the next few hours due to the fact that thousands of people they have been injured as many are still trapped in the rubble.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the event as “the biggest disaster since the 1939 earthquake”, which left more than 30,000 dead, and reported that 2,470 people have been rescued, while confirming that more than 2,800 buildings they have collapsed. The Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) has pointed out that more than 78 aftershocks have been registered, including one of magnitude 7.6 on the open Richter scale.