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Beşiktaş fans throw toys on to pitch for children affected by Turkey earthquakes

Teddy bears and toys were distributed before the Beşiktaş game to help victims of the Turkey earthquake. (Photo by Ali Atmaca/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Teddy bears and toys were distributed before the Beşiktaş game to help victims of the Turkey earthquake. (Photo by Ali Atmaca/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Fans of the Turkish football club Beşiktaş threw toys onto the pitch during the team's match with Antalyaspor on Sunday to give to children displaced by the devastating earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria this month. Fans tossed the toys during the same moment of the game (the 4:17 mark) that the first earthquake struck on Feb. 6.

Three total earthquakes hit the country — two on Feb. 6 and one on Feb. 20 — and the current death toll has reached 43,556 in Turkey alone and 47,244 total with Syrian victims included, per the Associated Press. Christian Atsu, a 31-year-old Ghanaian soccer player who had been playing for Turkish Super Lig club Hatayspor, was among those who died after his body was found under the earthquake rubble.

This isn't the first time Beşiktaş fans threw toys onto the field. Spectators reportedly did something similar to support child victims of the 2011 earthquakes in the Turkish city of Van on the southeastern side of the country.

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