Final volleyball students laid to rest in North Cyprus

Hundreds of mourners gathered for the funerals of those who were killed in last week’s earthquake while in Türkiye for a school volleyball tournament, on Sunday.

Threetheen funerals were held back-to-back in Gazimağusa, Yeniboğaziçi, Dörtyol and Mormenekşe for the  Turkish Maarif College volleyball team students killed in the quakes.

39 members of a high school volleyball team travelled from North Cyprus to Adiyaman, Türkiye for a match together with their teachers and parents. They were caught in the devastating quake that hit southern Turkey and Syria in the early hours last Monday.

35 were killed when their hotel in the south-eastern city of Adiyaman collapsed, burying them under mounds of rubble.

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.

48 Turkish Cypriots died in the earthquakes, which now have claimed the lives of over 35,000 people in Türkiye and Syria.

The Turkish Ambassador to Lefkosa Metin Feyzioğlu announced that the Adıyaman Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office opened a criminal investigation into the Isias Hotel, samples were taken from the wreckage and a judicial process was initiated.