A COMMUNITY hub and a kebab house in Rhyl are working together to gather donations to send to Turkey after the country was hit by an earthquake which has killed thousands.

The death toll from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, which took place on Monday (February 6), is more than 3,500 people in Turkey and in excess of 1,600 in Syria, while thousands more have been pulled from the debris.

In a bid to help, High Street Hwb and Bodrum Kebab House are appealing for essential items to be donated, which can then be transferred to London, before being shipped to Turkey.

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Ramazan Topac, owner of Bodrum Kebab House, 10 Water Street, is from Turkey himself, and his mother, father and sisters still live in his home country.

He said: “They (family) are OK, because their house is about two hours away from the earthquake, but I feel very sad about it.

“I’m still watching the news; just a few minutes ago, six kids came out from under a building, all of them about three of four years old. It’s very sad.

“If possible, new items (would be ideal), because they can’t always take used or out-of-date items over to Turkey.

“They’re very desperate for things like blankets and dry food.”

Stephen Wright, owner of High Street Hwb, 1-4 East Parade, said it was for causes like this that he helped set the hub up late last year.

The hubs is open daily from 10am – 7pm, with people urged to give what they can to support those in Turkey.

The Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has declared a three-month state of emergency in the 10 provinces affected the worst by the earthquake.

It struck at 1.17am GMT, at a depth of 17.9km (11 miles) near the city of Gaziantep

Stephen added: “We have a lot of friends in the Turkish community; I used to work for Bodrum Kebab House, and there’s a Turkish tailor in the middle of town who we do bits and pieces with, as well.

“Ramazan is obviously trying to raise his own donations as well, and has his own contacts in the Turkish community within the UK.

“But we thought that, if we assist in collecting donations here and hand them over to him, he can then ferry them on to the next point in the chain.

“We’re just trying to get as much in as we can, and help out where we can. We can see that it’s an absolute nightmare, and that people need help.

“The hub was set up to help people, and it doesn’t matter if it’s someone in the middle of Rhyl or on the other side of the world; we’ll try and help people where we can.

“If people just come to the main counter (at the hub, with their donations), we can help them from there. We’ve set aside a room to store everything.

“At the moment, it’s an ongoing thing because of how recent the disaster was. Everyone’s just scrambling to try get things out there and help, because from what Ramazan said, there are people living in tents in freezing conditions.

“They need clothing, they need food; all of the infrastructure around them has gone.”

Items which would be gratefully received are as follows:

• Equipment – tents, tent bedding, sleeping bags, blankets, thermos flasks, flashlights/torches.

• Canned/baby food.

• Nappies and cleaning supplies.

• Clothing – coats, raincoats, boots, jumpers, gloves, scarves, beanie hats, and socks.