According to the World Health Organization, the overall death toll may reach 20,000, while the Syria’s White Helmets anticipated a “significant” rise in numbers.
Rescuers in both Turkey and Syria are racing against time to save survivors trapped under the rubble as the death toll continues to rapidly increase in both nations.
Some 2,470 people have perished in Syria and 7,108 in Turkey as a result of the decade’s strongest earthquake that struck the region on Monday.
According to the World Health Organization, the overall death toll may reach 20,000, while the Syria’s White Helmets anticipated a “significant” rise in numbers.
In Turkey, Vice President Fuat Oktay said more than 8,000 people have so far been rescued from the rubble. Approximately 380,000 people have sought sanctuary in hotels or government shelters, with more congregating in malls, stadiums, mosques, and community centres across the affected region.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoan proclaimed a disaster zone in the ten provinces impacted by the earthquakes on Tuesday afternoon, establishing a three-month state of emergency in the area as well as a seven day national mourning period.
“It’s like the world is ending, it’s really bad. Confirmed deaths are coming in around the clock, this is a disaster,” Member of Turkish Ambulance speaking at Funeral Service in Gaziantep told Doha News.
Speaking to Doha News’ journalist Mohamed Eltayeb, a resident said: “I have had two deaths already, we don’t know what to do, God help us”.
The disaster management organisation in Turkey reported receiving 11,342 reports of collapsed buildings, of which 5,775 were verified. Some 3,400 people found refuge in trains that were being used as temporary housing over the course of the night, according to the ministry of transportation and infrastructure.
More than 24,400 search and rescue workers have been sent to the earthquake area by Turkey. Increases in manpower were anticipated, disaster management agency official Orhan Tatar said.
However Hatay survivors and social media users have criticised the Turkish government for taking too long to dispatch sufficient rescue crews to the area. Late on Monday, the presidency’s media department denounced these charges as disinformation, reports said.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said in Hatay alone, 2,749 buildings had collapsed, adding that the figure could rise. There were around 3,000 rescue workers on the scene, and they predicted that number to increase by Wednesday.
Rescue attempts were hampered by Hatay’s airport being shut down after the earthquake wrecked the runway.
The earthquake, which had its epicenter around 175 kilometers (110 miles) north in Kahramanmaras, has had a significant impact on Hatay, which borders Syria and the Mediterranean.
Separately, Syria’s earthquake-affected region is split between territory controlled by the government and the final opposition-held outpost, which is encircled by government troops and borders Turkey.
The United Nations has released $25 million from its emergency budget to help launch the humanitarian response in Turkey and Syria, saying that it is “exploring all avenues” to bring supplies to rebel-held northwest Syria.
The road leading to the Bab Al-Hawa border crossing between Turkey and northern Syria was damaged, according to UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, which momentarily hampered the delivery of aid to the rebel-held northwest. The border crossing itself “is actually intact,” he claimed.
While UN aid is only permitted to enter the region through Bab Al-Hawa, the head of the Syrian Negotiations Committee on Wednesday said they will also allow the entry of aid from the Bab Al-Salama and Al-Rai crossings following talks with Turkey, Al Jazeera reported.
According to Dujarric, the UN is assembling a convoy to cross the Syrian combat lines. However, as Bashar Al Assad’s regime has been laying siege to rebel-held areas throughout the civil war.
More than 1.7 million of the 15 million people living in the 10 provinces affected by the earthquake in Turkey, according to Dujarric, are Syrian refugees.
Relatives and a doctor claimed Tuesday that a woman gave birth to a baby girl while she was buried in the rubble of a five-story apartment building in northwest Syria that was destroyed.
When rescuers came across the sobbing baby, they rushed the infant to a children’s hospital in the Aleppo’s provincial town of Afrin, where the child is currently receiving care. The mother, father and siblings of the infant passed away.
Separately, the Palestinian Authority said the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria claimed the lives of 57 Palestinian refugees.
Authorities said that 14 people were killed in Turkey and 43 in Syria, the latter of which has for many years hosted approximately 500,000 Palestinians in sizeable refugee camps and is one of the few Arab countries to grant them full civil rights, reports said.
Global community steps in
Jordan, which borders Syria, has said that it will send planes packed with tents, medical supplies, and search-and-rescue gear as well as 99 rescuers and five physicians to help with relief efforts in Turkey and Syria.
Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan, established a relief fund for earthquake-stricken Turkey on Tuesday and urged donors to give generously.
Its federal Cabinet will contribute one month’s salary, and each government worker will contribute one day’s salary, the official said, pointing to Turkey’s support for the country when it faced unprecedented flooding last year.
Meanwhile, the Greek Orthodox Church has scheduled prayer services and a fundraising campaign in support of the earthquake victims in Syria and Turkey. The initiative came in response to a request for aid made by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual head of all Orthodox Christians in the world, who resides in Istanbul.
Despite tense relations between Yerevan and Ankara, the foreign minister of Armenia claims that his nation has volunteered to assist Syria and Turkey in their response to the tragic earthquake.
Greece, whose relations with its neighbour Turkey are equally tense, sent a team of rescuers and assistance supplies on Monday and vowed to send more in the future.
On Tuesday, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt called Bashar Assad of Syria to express his sympathies for the earthquake casualties. The two presidents had not spoken on the phone in almost a decade due to the decade-long conflict in Syria, triggered by the regime’s brutal repression of democrcacy protests.
According to a statement from the Egyptian presidency, El-Sisi declared that his nation would provide aid to Syria.
An Iranian civilian plane bearing relief for earthquake-affected Syrians arrived in Damascus Airport early on Tuesday. The 45-tonne cargo comprised of essential supplies like food, medicine and hygiene items.
Aid convoys and rescuers have arrived at airports in government-held Syria from a number of nations, including Russia, a crucial ally, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Iran, and Algeria.
However, concerns have been raised about whether the aid will be delivered to rebel-held territories.
The government in Damascus and its allies in Russia have taken advantage of the situation to redouble efforts to persuade the passage of aid to the north through Damascus, according to reports.
Countries opposed to Assad are concerned that aid will be misused to benefit government-affiliated individuals and institutions and do not trust the Syrian authorities to efficiently transfer aid to opposition areas.
However, Khaled Hboubati, the head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, stated at a press conference on Tuesday in Damascus that his organisation is “ready to deliver relief aid to all regions of Syria, including areas not under government control”.
Hboubati claimed that the sanctions make the “difficult humanitarian situation,” worse. “There is no fuel even to send (aid and rescue) convoys, and this is because of the blockade and sanctions,” he said.
On Monday, the US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters that it would be “ironic, if not even counterproductive, for us to reach out to a government that has brutalised its people over the course of a dozen years now,” adding that Washington would continue to provide aid through “humanitarian partners on the ground.”
