<p>Tuba Yolcu is desperate for news of her missing aunt and scours a sports hall where victims of a powerful earthquake that hit her hometown in Turkey lie in body bags.</p>.<p>"We hear (the authorities) will no longer keep the bodies waiting after a certain period of time, they say they will take them and bury them," she said.</p>.<p>"God willing we will find her," Yolcu said, with worry etched on her face.</p>.<p>Monday's 7.8-magnitude tremor struck Kahramanmaras in the country's southeast, unleashing catastrophe in the region and Syria, killing at least 28,000 people.</p>.<p>Anguished families flock to sports halls, hospital morgues or cemeteries in the severely hit city -- where bodies are piling up -- in a bid to find their missing relatives.</p>.<p>"Every unidentified body will eventually be returned to their family," a prosecutor said, trying to soothe the families.</p>.<p>"Don't worry, blood samples are taken from each and every missing body," he assured.</p>.<p><strong>Also Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/city/top-bengaluru-stories/missing-in-turkey-family-colleagues-pray-for-a-cool-man-1189717.html" target="_blank">Missing in Turkey, family, colleagues pray for a 'cool man'</a></strong></p>.<p>Families -- who cannot reach their loved ones during the rescue work -- check one by one bodies either in bags or wrapped in blankets.</p>.<p>"We show the faces to their immediate relatives," a crime scene investigator in a hazmat suit told <em>AFP </em>at a large grave outside the city.</p>.<p>Funeral cars deliver a stream of bodies, burying them one by one.</p>.<p>"If the identity is unknown, we take fingerprints and tooth samples and compare them with their relatives," said the investigator, who carries a camera around his neck.</p>.<p>About 2,000 bodies have been identified at the cemetery, which is filled with freshly dug graves.</p>.<p>Next to the wooden headstones at the makeshift cemetery, where some are wrapped by scarves, people mourn their relatives.</p>.<p>One woman sits near the grave, unable to stop crying.</p>.<p><strong>Also Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/international/world-news-politics/looters-raid-citys-shops-homes-after-turkey-quake-1190401.html" target="_blank">Looters raid city's shops, homes after Turkey quake</a></strong></p>.<p>Missing bodies are stored lower down, where investigators take pictures and notes.</p>.<p>Yusuf Sekman, from the religious affairs directorate, said the unidentified bodies are also divided according to where their collapsed building was located.</p>.<p>This allows relatives to "also look, based on the recovered body's address", he said.</p>.<p>"Their samples are taken, and noted down on body bags" to help with identification.</p>.<p>Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Friday he hoped the missing bodies would be identified and said the government was doing everything it could.</p>.<p>"We upload unidentified patients' photographs to a special software in order to match," Koca said.</p>.<p>Unfortunately for Yolcu, her aunt was not at the sports hall since an official said all the bodies have been identified.</p>.<p>When the quake struck, her aunt was in the city but Yolcu was in a village.</p>.<p>"We cannot find her body," she said, adding that she won't stop looking.</p>.<p>As she stepped out of the hall, she turned back to her husband and said: "Let's return to the rubble", hoping that perhaps her aunt had yet to be pulled out.</p>
<p>Tuba Yolcu is desperate for news of her missing aunt and scours a sports hall where victims of a powerful earthquake that hit her hometown in Turkey lie in body bags.</p>.<p>"We hear (the authorities) will no longer keep the bodies waiting after a certain period of time, they say they will take them and bury them," she said.</p>.<p>"God willing we will find her," Yolcu said, with worry etched on her face.</p>.<p>Monday's 7.8-magnitude tremor struck Kahramanmaras in the country's southeast, unleashing catastrophe in the region and Syria, killing at least 28,000 people.</p>.<p>Anguished families flock to sports halls, hospital morgues or cemeteries in the severely hit city -- where bodies are piling up -- in a bid to find their missing relatives.</p>.<p>"Every unidentified body will eventually be returned to their family," a prosecutor said, trying to soothe the families.</p>.<p>"Don't worry, blood samples are taken from each and every missing body," he assured.</p>.<p><strong>Also Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/city/top-bengaluru-stories/missing-in-turkey-family-colleagues-pray-for-a-cool-man-1189717.html" target="_blank">Missing in Turkey, family, colleagues pray for a 'cool man'</a></strong></p>.<p>Families -- who cannot reach their loved ones during the rescue work -- check one by one bodies either in bags or wrapped in blankets.</p>.<p>"We show the faces to their immediate relatives," a crime scene investigator in a hazmat suit told <em>AFP </em>at a large grave outside the city.</p>.<p>Funeral cars deliver a stream of bodies, burying them one by one.</p>.<p>"If the identity is unknown, we take fingerprints and tooth samples and compare them with their relatives," said the investigator, who carries a camera around his neck.</p>.<p>About 2,000 bodies have been identified at the cemetery, which is filled with freshly dug graves.</p>.<p>Next to the wooden headstones at the makeshift cemetery, where some are wrapped by scarves, people mourn their relatives.</p>.<p>One woman sits near the grave, unable to stop crying.</p>.<p><strong>Also Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/international/world-news-politics/looters-raid-citys-shops-homes-after-turkey-quake-1190401.html" target="_blank">Looters raid city's shops, homes after Turkey quake</a></strong></p>.<p>Missing bodies are stored lower down, where investigators take pictures and notes.</p>.<p>Yusuf Sekman, from the religious affairs directorate, said the unidentified bodies are also divided according to where their collapsed building was located.</p>.<p>This allows relatives to "also look, based on the recovered body's address", he said.</p>.<p>"Their samples are taken, and noted down on body bags" to help with identification.</p>.<p>Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Friday he hoped the missing bodies would be identified and said the government was doing everything it could.</p>.<p>"We upload unidentified patients' photographs to a special software in order to match," Koca said.</p>.<p>Unfortunately for Yolcu, her aunt was not at the sports hall since an official said all the bodies have been identified.</p>.<p>When the quake struck, her aunt was in the city but Yolcu was in a village.</p>.<p>"We cannot find her body," she said, adding that she won't stop looking.</p>.<p>As she stepped out of the hall, she turned back to her husband and said: "Let's return to the rubble", hoping that perhaps her aunt had yet to be pulled out.</p>