On Tuesday, the death toll from a severe earthquake in Turkey and Syria surpassed 4,400 as desperation grew and the magnitude of the tragedy hindered relief efforts. Rescuers were overburdened and fought to help victims trapped under the wreckage.
Reuters journalists witnessed rescue efforts on one of the dozens of heaps of debris in the Turkish city of Antakya near the Syrian border, where 10-story buildings had collapsed onto the streets.
As the rain fell, the temperature in the city approached freezing, and there was no electricity or fuel.
Early on Monday morning, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Turkey and neighbouring Syria, bringing down hundreds of structures, including several apartment complexes, destroying hospitals, and leaving thousands of people injured or homeless.
The death toll in Turkey has risen to 2,921, according to Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).
According to the Syrian government and rescue service in the insurgent-held northwest, the death toll in Syria, devastated by more than 11 years of conflict, has surpassed 1,500.
During the night, search operations were hindered by subzero temperatures. Under a mound of rubble in the southern Turkish province of Hatay, a woman was heard pleading for assistance. A tiny child's body was located nearby and was motionless.
Deniz, a resident, wrung his hands in despair while sobbing in the rain.
He stated, "They're making noises, but nobody is coming," "We are heartbroken, we are heartbroken. My God ... They are making a call. They are pleading for assistance, but we cannot assist them. How will we attempt to save them? Nobody has been seen since the morning."
Families slept in parked cars along the streets.
Standing next to a pile of wreckage where an eight-story structure previously stood, Ayla stated that she had gone from Gaziantep to Hatay on Monday to find her mother. Five or six firefighters from the Istanbul fire department were sifting through the rubble, which consisted of a concrete and glass sandwich.
"There are currently no survivors. I feared it was my mother when a stray dog arrived and barked at a given location for an extended period. "But it was another person," she replied.
"I turned on the car's lights to assist the rescue squad. There were only two bodies and no survivors recovered thus far."
Families gathered around fireplaces and covered themselves in blankets to remain warm in Kahramanmaras, north of Antakya.
Neset Guler huddled with his four children, exclaimed, "We barely made it out of the house," "Our condition is catastrophic. We are both hungry and thirsty. It is dismal."
AFAD said that approximately 8,000 people were rescued from 4,758 buildings devastated by the earthquakes the day before.
More than 41,000 tents, 100,000 mattresses, and 300,000 blankets were transported to the affected region, along with 13,740 search and rescue professionals. It stated that the delivery of troops and trucks proceeded uninterrupted throughout the night.
Aftershocks
The earthquake, accompanied by aftershocks, was the largest documented globally by the U.S. Geological Survey since August 2021, when one occurred in the distant South Atlantic.
According to the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre, a 5.6 magnitude tremor shook central Turkey on Tuesday.
Monday's earthquake was the deadliest in Turkey since a quake of comparable size killed more than 17,000 in 1999. Monday's tremor reportedly caused nearly 16,000 injuries.
Poor internet connections and damaged roads between some of the worst-affected cities in Turkey, which are home to millions of people, impeded efforts to assess the damage and prepare aid.
President Tayyip Erdogan, heading for a difficult election in May, described the earthquake as a historical catastrophe and stated that officials were doing everything they could.
In the Turkish city of Iskenderun, rescuers scaled a massive mound of debris, formerly the intensive care unit of a state hospital, in search of survivors. The medical staff did their best to treat the increasing influx of damaged patients.
"We have a patient who was taken into surgery, but we don't know what happened," said Tulin, a woman in her 30s, as she stood outside the hospital, wiping away tears and praying.
In Syria, the consequences of the earthquake were exacerbated by more than eleven years of civil conflict.
More than 740 people have been killed in the rebel-held northwest, according to the Syrian civil defence, a rescue agency recognized for rescuing victims of government airstrikes.
The civil defence said that hundreds of families were buried beneath the rubble and that time was running out to rescue them.
According to a senior U.N. humanitarian official in Syria, fuel shortages and severe weather are impeding relief efforts.
In an interview with Reuters conducted via video link from Damascus, U.N. resident coordinator El-Mostafa Benlamlih stated, "The infrastructure is damaged, the roads that we used to use for humanitarian work are damaged, we have to be creative in how to get to the people ... but we are working hard,"
The Syrian health ministry reported 764 deaths in areas under government control.
