The body of Hatayspor’s Sporting Director, Taner Savut, was found on Tuesday, more than two weeks after two devastating earthquakes struck in Turkey and Syria.
Savut had been missing since February 6, and his body was found close to where Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu, of the same club, was discovered last week.
Atsu was confirmed dead on Saturday with his remains being flown to his family on Sunday with the help of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Internal Relations.
However, days after the death of the Ghanaian was confirmed, Hatayspor also announced they have seen the lifeless body of the club’s Sporting Director.
“We feel the deep sorrow of losing our Sporting Director Taner Savut,” Turkish side Hatayspor said on Twitter on Tuesday.
Başımız sağ olsun
Sportif Direktörümüz Taner Savut'u kaybetmenin derin acısını yaşıyoruz. Hocamıza yüce Allah'tan rahmet, ailesine ve sevenlerine başsağlığı diliyoruz. Seni unutmayacağız Taner hoca. Mekanın cennet olsun. Her zaman kalbimizdesin.#AtakaşHataysporpic.twitter.com/RSpFjnV0YZ
Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng, the executive director of the Crime Check Foundation, has stated that he has been informed that Christian Atsuleft his flat before the earthquake occurred.
Christian Atsu and his Hataysporclub technical director, Taner Savut, have both been missing since Monday, February 6, 2023, following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria.
His agent, Nana Sechere went to the site with a rescue team in search of his player but revealed that only a pair of his shoes were found at the apartment and that there was no sign of Christian Atsu.
Providing his own update, Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng who has been working with Christian Atsu over the years, stated that he has been told the player left the apartment minutes before the earthquake hit his building.
“I have been briefed by the club that he was not in the building. He run to the parking garage to get his car out and it was during that period that the Renaissance building totally collapsed and that happened 20 minutes after he left the apartment.”
“Our brother was not in the building, he went out before the building collapsed. But I can’t confirm whether he will able to leave the parking garage with his car or not,” he added in his update on Crime Check’s YouTube page sighted by GhanaWeb.
Football player Christian Atsu’s partner has requested that equipment be sent to the building that has collapsed where he was living since Atsu has been missing since the Monday earthquake in Turkey.
Atsu, a player for the Turkish team Hatayspor, was reportedly pulled “with injuries” from a building.
But a day later, his agent stated that it was unknown where he was.
Claire Rupio, a resident of Newcastle, United Kingdom, told BBC News, “I still pray and believe that he is alive.”
Rupio says conflicting reports about his whereabouts have been “confusing” and “quite shocking”, revealing their children heard on the radio that he will still missing.
She said: “I appeal for the Hatayspor club, the Turkish authorities, and the British government to send out the equipment to get people out of the rubble—especially my partner and the father of my children.”
“They need the equipment to get them out—they can’t get that deep without the equipment.” “And time is running out.”
More than 21,000 people have died in southern Turkey and northern Syria since the earthquake and aftershocks that followed.
Taner Savut, the sporting director of Atsu’s club Hatayspor, and Atsu have not been seen since the quake on Monday.
On Tuesday, Hatayspor’s vice-president told Turkish media that Atsu had been found alive, but on Wednesday, other figures from the club as well as Atsu’s agent Nana Sechere said they had not been able to confirm this.
Rupio said that the agent is now in Turkey and attempting to get to the building in Hatay that Atsu is inside.
Sechere tweeted on Thursday: “The situation remains the same, Christian Atsu is yet to be found. Unless I see Christian, or speak with him, I have no further updates.”
“They know where the building is, and they’re trying their best to rescue everybody,” added Rupio.
“They know there are people still trapped under the rubble, but the problem is that they don’t have the equipment necessary to get them out.
“So he’s still missing, and we don’t know where he is.”
‘Atsu reports have been confusing and shocking’
Rupio last spoke to Atsu on Saturday morning. She described the inaccurate news from the club about Atsu having been rescued as “quite shocking.”
“The club were confirming that he was found and was alive and taken to hospital, and 11 hours later my children had to hear from the radio that they still did not know where he is,” she said.
“I know that his agent is there and that they are trying their best to find him.” He will obviously bring me news that I can trust if he sees or speaks to him. “Everything is quite confusing.”
Atsu, 31, played 107 games for Newcastle and had spells with Chelsea, Everton, and Bournemouth.
The Premier League has announced it will donate £1m to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Appeal to deliver humanitarian aid to those in Turkey and Syria in need of it.
Also, as a mark of respect to those who lost their lives, or are affected by these tragic events, Premier League players and match officials will wear black armbands at games this weekend.
In the Turkish city of Hatay,Christian Atsu and an official of his club, Hatayspor, are still thought to be trapped inside the wreckage of the apartment building where they once resided.
According to reports in Turkish media, thermal cameras used at the Hatay Renaissance facility have verified that many people who were buried alive by the rubble after the earthquake on February 6 are still alive.
The facility, which has about 250 apartments, was occupied at the time of the incident, according to the media outlet Ajansspor.
“There are many living people, confirmed by thermal cameras. The building, where national handball player Cemal Kütahya and his family, Hatayspor manager Taner Savut, and football player Christian Atsu are located, is very crowded with a capacity of 1000 people,” Ajansspor tweeted with a video of experts at the site.
Christian Atsu and Hatayspor’s Sporting Director, Taner Savut are among the occupants of the facility believed to still be under the rubble.
Reports emerged that Atsu had been rescued alive and sent to the hospital after 26 hours (February 7) but that account was later dismissed as a case of mistaken identity.
The death toll continues to mount even as technical, logistical, and relief support from across the world pours in to help the country cope with the magnitude of death and destruction.
