- The death toll from the earthquakes in Turkey and northwestern Syria has gone past 34,000 as rescue efforts continue.
- The number of deaths in Turkey rose to 29,605 on Sunday, while more than 4,530 people have died in Syria.
- The United Nations says up to 5.3 million people in Syria may be homeless after the earthquakes, while nearly 900,000 people are in urgent need of hot food in Turkey and Syria.
- The Syrian government has approved the delivery of humanitarian aid to quake-hit areas outside its control, according to state media.
- Turkey says it is working to open two new routes into rebel-held parts of Syria.
The United Nations says up to 5.3 million people in Syria may be homeless after the earthquakes, while nearly 900,000 people are in urgent need of hot food in Turkey and Syria.
The Syrian government has approved the delivery of humanitarian aid to quake-hit areas outside its control, according to state media.
Turkey says it is working to open two new routes into rebel-held parts of Syria.
You can find information on how to donate to earthquake relief efforts here.
EU envoy to Syria says accusation of not providing enough aid ‘unfair’
The European Union’s envoy to Syria says it is not fair to accuse the group of failing to provide enough help to Syrians following the devastating earthquake that hit swaths of Syria and Turkey.
“It is absolutely unfair to be accused of not providing aid, when actually we have constantly been doing exactly that for over a decade and we are doing so much more even during the earthquake crisis,” the head of the EU delegation, Dan Stoenescu, told Reuters news agency in written comments.Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu says Turkey has experienced 2,356 tremors since Monday’s devastating earthquakes.
She says experts are calling for more quality control during the construction of buildings to reduce risks in the quake-prone region.Nearly a week since the Turkey-Syria earthquakes, Hassan Guntekin continues to cling to the hope that his wife, three children and mother-in-law may still be alive under rubble in the Turkish city of Antakya.
“I need my three children to be rescued. Even if only one of my kids survives, it will be a hope for me to continue living,” he told Al Jazeera. “Otherwise, there is no point to keep on living. I don’t know what I will do. Who will call me dad during Eid?”
The Antakya resident said the Turkish government has “failed” in its response to the quakes.
“They are so disorganised and can’t work at all. It is the sixth day and every day two different teams take part in the rescue,” he said.
“I haven’t seen any officials here, neither from the government nor from the mayor’s office. I don’t want to see them anyway. They don’t come here because they know we don’t want to see them.”
Rescuer wearing a hat with a light stands in front of a hill of rubble with many more rescuers on top of it, in the background. It is nighttime.
Rescuers pulled a seven-month-old baby and a teenage girl from the rubble, nearly a week after earthquakes devastated southeastern Turkey.
The infant was rescued in the city of Hatay more than 140 hours after the quake, state media reported, while Esma Sultan, 13, was pulled from the rubble of a building in the city of Gaziantep.
In the city of Kahramanmaras – the epicentre of Monday’s 7.8-magnitude tremor – a 70-year-old woman was also saved.
“Is the world there?” Menekse Tabak asked as she was pulled out from the concrete to applause and cries praising God, according to a video on state broadcaster TRT Haber.UN relief chief Martin Griffith says the death toll from the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria could “double or more” from its current levels.
Commenting on the number of deaths, he told Sky News: “I think it is difficult to estimate precisely as we need to get under the rubble but I’m sure it will double or more.”
“We haven’t really begun to count the number of dead,” he said.
Officials and medics said 24,617 people were killed in Turkey and more than 3,500 in Syria. The confirmed total now stands at more than 28,000.Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay says at least 24,617 people have been killed in the deadly quakes that struck southeastern Turkey.
Earlier, Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said some 80,278 people have been injured.
