Town in northern Cyprus buries last of school volleyball team killed in quake

Mourners from a town in the occupied north of Cyprus on Sunday buried the last of 39 people, including 24 children, who were killed in last week’s earthquake while in Turkey for a school volleyball tournament.

The children aged 11 to 14, 10 parents, four teachers and a trainer, were killed when their hotel in the south-eastern city of Adiyaman collapsed, burying them under mounds of rubble.

The team from Turkish Maarif College in Famagusta, in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus had traveled to Adiyaman for a match together with their trainers, teachers and parents. They were caught in the devastating quake that hit southern Turkey and Syria in the early hours last Monday.

Huge crowds attended back-to-back funerals in Famagusta on Friday and Saturday, and hundreds were present at two more ceremonies held on Sunday for trainer Osman Cetintas and team member Havin Kilic.

Mourners, among them high school students, prayed and wept over the two coffins, between which lay a volleyball.

The death toll in Turkey and Syria from the earthquake and major aftershocks rose above 33,000 on Sunday and looked set to keep growing. [Reuters]