Tamer Hassan fought back tears as he revealed members of his family are lost after the earthquakes that shook Turkey and Syria in the early hours of Monday (6 February).
The British-Turkish actor, best known for his role in The Football Factory and whose daughter Belle is a Love Island star, is now leading a campaign to raise £100,000 to provide humanitarian support.
Hassan, 54, told Sky News that he has family members who are “missing”.
“We have family missing. Due to the cold weather, we’re not hopeful... we’re quite worried,” he said. “I have no words.”
He continued: “We’re all devastated. We have family that are lost. I’ll be heading to Turkey, we’re trying to find a route in to the worst affected areas”.
Hassan, who lives in London, said that the affected areas are “desperate for manpower” and in need of money for supplies.
He described areas as “flattened” with people trapped underneath rocks, based on what he has seen in video footage.
The boxer-turned-actor starred in The Football Factory opposite Danny Dyer and Layer Cake with Daniel Craig, and also appeared in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins.
His daughter, Belle, 24, is a make-up artist and appeared on Love Island in 2019.
The quake was followed by powerful aftershocks affecting parts of Syria, and thousands of buildings across Turkey and northern Syria were reduced to rubble as people slept.
The death toll climbed to 12,391 by Thursday (9 February), the Disaster Management Authority (AFAD) said, according to the Cumhuriyet news website. Combined with the death toll in Syria, the overall toll has crossed the 15,000 mark as rescuers continue to pull bodies from the rubble. The number of injured has increased to 62,914.
Love Island winner Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, who is of Turkish descent, also made a plea to the public and her social media followers to aide the humanitarian crisis however they can.
“There are starving people and we need your help,” she said in a video posted by British Red Cross. “I’m sending love to each family. We will do what we can. The best thing you can do is support, donate and to ask for or give help.”
“Please, please, please, do whatever you can do. We hope to see an end to this soon,” she added, revealing that her Turkish family have been “sleeping outside” following the quake.
According to Italian seismologist Carlo Doglioni, the president of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), the series of powerful earthquakes have likely moved the entire country by up to six metres.
More than 110,000 rescue personnel were pressed into action and more than 5,500 vehicles, including tractors, cranes, bulldozers and excavators had been shipped, the Turkish disaster management agency said.
