Rescue drill held in Uludağ before winter season

BURSA

The Gendarmerie General Command has held a joint exercise with the participation of the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) and search and rescue teams in the northwestern province of Bursa’s Uludağ, one of Türkiye’s important winter tourism centers.

According to data from the Turkish State Meteorological Service, snowfall is expected as of Dec. 20, with the temperature dropping to three degrees below zero in Uludağ.

In Uludağ, where the season will open with snowfall, hotel and ski facilities completed their preparations.

Security measures were also increased to the highest level at the ski resort, which is expected to create a density of domestic and foreign tourists before the New Year.

Accordingly, the teams within the provincial gendarmerie, AFAD and local search and rescue teams held a drill before the winter season.

A large number of personnel from the gendarmerie, AFAD and search and rescue teams participated in the exercise, in which the people trapped in the 15-meter-high chairlifts on the ski slopes were rescued as per the scenario.

More than 45 million tourists visited the country from January to October, a figure close to the 46 million visitors Türkiye attracted in the same period of 2019.

In the first 10 months of 2022, foreign tourist arrivals increased by 88 percent from a year ago to 39.6 million. Including Turkish citizens residing abroad, the number of visitors stood at more than 45 million.