Rescuers raced early yesterday to pull survivors from the rubble before succumbing to the cold weather, two days after an earthquake hit southern Turkey and war-torn northern Syria.
The death toll from the earthquake rose sharply, exceeding 7,700 dead, and is expected to rise.
The past two days have seen dramatic rescue operations, including small children from piles of rubble, more than 30 hours after the quake struck before dawn on Monday.
However, some areas have seen a state of desperation and growing anger over the slow pace of rescue efforts.
Osman Can Taninmish, whose family members are still under the rubble in Hatay, Turkey’s worst-affected province, said, “It’s as if we woke up in hell…help doesn’t come, it can’t come, we can’t communicate with anyone at all, destruction is everywhere.” In Syria, residents found a newborn crying, still attached to the umbilical cord of her dead mother.
The girl’s relatives told The Associated Press that the baby is the only member of her family who survived a building collapse in the small town of Jenderes.
Search and rescue teams poured in from about 30 countries, as did pledges of aid.
But as destruction spreads across many cities and towns – some of them cut off by the ongoing conflict in Syria – cries for help are silenced under piles of rubble.
Last Monday’s earthquake, which measured 7.8 on the Richter scale, and its powerful aftershocks, covered vast areas, extending for hundreds of kilometers, in southern Turkey and northern Syria.
The violent earthquake led to the collapse of thousands of buildings, exacerbating the misery of a region torn apart by the 12-year-old Syrian civil war, as well as the refugee crisis.
• With the spread of destruction in many cities and towns – some of them isolated by the ongoing conflict in Syria – the voices calling for help fell silent under the piles of rubble.