ANKARA: A team of Turkish rescuers began an in-depth search of Syria's infamous Saydnaya prison on Monday, a spokesman for Turkey's AFAD disaster management agency told AFP.
Located just north of Damascus, the prison has become a symbol of the rights abuses of the Assad clan, especially since the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011.
Prisoners held inside the complex, which was the site of extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances, were freed early last week by the rebels who ousted Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad on December 8.
AFAD said it had sent a team of nearly 80 people to conduct a search-and-rescue operation to "find people thought to be trapped in Sadnaya military prison", with its director due to give a press conference outside the prison about its mission, spokesman Kubilay Ozyurt told AFP.
The complex is thought to descend several levels underground, fuelling suspicion more prisoners could be being held in as yet undiscovered hidden cells.
But the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Saydnaya Prison (ADMSP), believes the rumours are unfounded.
AFAD said the team, which is specialised in "heavy" urban search and rescue operations, would work with "advanced search and rescue devices", the Anadolu state news agency reported.
The prison complex was thoroughly searched by Syria's White Helmets emergency workers but they wrapped up their operations on Tuesday, saying they were unable to find any more prisoners.
Rescuers have punched holes in walls to investigate rumours of secret levels housing missing prisoners, but found nothing, leaving many thousands of families disappointed – their relatives are probably dead and may never be found.
ADMSP said the rebels freed more than 4,000 prisoners from Saydnaya, which Amnesty International has described as a "human slaughterhouse."
The organisation, which is based in southern Turkey, believes more than 30,000 prisoners died there as a result of execution, torture, starvation or a lack of medical care between 2011 and 2018.