Hopes of finding survivors are quickly fading and residents of southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria are criticising what they call slow search and rescue efforts.
Yet amid the freezing cold, rescue workers are still pulling people out alive from the rubble, as search operations continue for a fourth day.
Nationwide relief is being coordinated days after two earthquakes hit 10 cities, with more than 13 million inhabitants.
Experts say that Monday’s disaster was the “worst” inland shallow earthquake of the 21st century. Many of the structures along the 200km faultline collapsed and the scale of the disaster is one of the biggest tests that President Erdogan and his government have yet faced.European commissioner visits Turkey as bloc steps up aid for region
EU Crisis Commissioner Janez Lenarcic has visited Gaziantep, Turkey, as the bloc makes more aid available to Syria.
Tents, sleeping bags, mattresses, beds, food, and clothing were among in-kind aid offered by EU countries to Syria, after the country asked the bloc for help on Wednesday.
The EU has previously made $3.8m in emergency funding available to aid organisations to address urgent needs including financing for shelter, water and sanitation in Syria.
A request from the United Nation’s World Food Programme for additional help will allow further EU aid to be channelled, a statement read.
People sit around a fire next to rubble and damages near the site of a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras, Turkey [Suhaib Salem/Reuters]
Rescue workers have some good news in Adana, Turkey, as they work around the clock at the site of a 12-storey building that collapsed in Monday’s earthquakes.
They found 45-year-old Akgun Eker alive after she was trapped under rubble for more than three days.
Ukrainian rescue experts, more used to emergencies in a war zone at home, have brought their skills to Turkey to search flattened buildings for survivors, erect tents and offer first aid.
“There is a war in our country, but we understand that we have to help, and this aid is mutual. There is no other way to do it,” said Oleksandr Khorunzhyi, a spokesman for the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.
Kyiv has sent 88 people to Turkey to help with the disaster. The team includes specialists in search and rescue operations, doctors, dog handlers and firefighters.
Turkish foreign minister, US secretary of state discuss situation in Turkey
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken have spoken about the situation in Turkey in a phone call.Cavusoglu and Blinken discussed continuing relief operations in the affected areas.
Germany will increase the amount of humanitarian assistance it provides in Syria by 26 million euros ($28m) to respond to the growing needs of Syrians.
A statement from the German embassy in Beirut said the funds were needed “especially in the affected areas in the northwestern parts of the country”, home to many Syrians displaced during a 12-year war.
“Germany can build on close ties with international organizations and NGOs in northwestern Syria, as it has already been providing extensive humanitarian assistance there,” the statement said.Rescuers carry Syrian boy Mehtez Farac, 8, who survived after he was pulled from the rubble in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Hatay, Turkey [Kemal Aslan/Reuters]
The UK has said it is committing additional funding – at least three million pounds ($3.65m) – to support search and rescue operations and emergency relief in Syria following earthquakes in the region.
“Given the magnitude of the earthquakes and difficulties in accessing affected areas in North West Syria, the UK will be providing The White Helmets with additional funding to aid their major search-and-rescue operations,” the UK said in a statement.
Members of a Syrian family, whose house was destroyed during the war in Syria and later moved to Turkey, gather after their house in Turkey was destroyed in the deadly earthquake, in Kahramanmaras, Turkey [Suhaib Salem/Reuters]
The earthquakes have caused great destruction in 10 provinces and “can be described as the disaster of the century,” Erdogan has said, while inspecting search and rescue efforts in the province of Osmaniye, where he met quake victims.
“Hundreds of thousands of people are taking part in relief efforts. All kinds of teams and vehicles from across the country have been dispatched to the region,” he said.
After visiting the earthquake victims at a hospital in Kilis, Erdogan said, “Last Monday, we were confronted with the worst earthquake this region has ever seen in its history.”
Footage from Turkey’s IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation showed rescue workers looking into a narrow opening in debris in Antakya and pulling out the boy as he wept.
A worker from Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority carried the boy away and handed him to health workers as bystanders filmed the rescue on their phones.
The earthquake death toll in Turkey has risen to 16,546, Erdogan says.
