The combined death toll from Monday’s earthquake which struck Syria and Turkey has now reached 11,416, as rescue efforts continued across the region, despite being hampered by cold weather conditions.
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that the death toll from Monday’s quake had reached 8,754 in Turkey. Visiting Kahramanmaraş, which was near the epicentre of the quake, he said “On the first day we experienced some issues, but then on the second day and today the situation is under control”. Erdoğan promised the government aims to build housing within one year for those left without a home in the 10 provinces affected.
The death toll in Syria has risen to 2,662, according to reports from AFP. Syria’s government has received help from a host of Arab countries including Egypt and Iraq, as well as from its key ally Russia, which has sent rescue teams and deployed forces already in Syria to join relief work, including in Aleppo.
Syria has activated the EU civil protection mechanism, two days after the earthquake, to request further assistance from the 27-country bloc and the eight other nation states that are part of the programme. The European Union has has already mobilised search and rescue teams to help Turkey, while the bloc’s Copernicus satellite system has been activated to provide emergency mapping services. At least 19 member countries have offered assistance.
Cold weather continues to be expected in the region with minimum and maximum temperatures for Kahramanmaraş today of -6C and 1C (21-34F), and for Gaziantep between -5C and 1C (23-34F). Diyarbakır is expected to have continued snowfall, with temperatures climbing to 2C (35F) at most.
A container blaze at Turkey’s southern port of Iskenderun has been brought under control, Turkey’s maritime authority said on Wednesday, following combined extinguishing efforts from land, sea and air. The blaze started when containers were toppled during the quake.
A first 7.8-magnitude quake struck at 4.17 am (1.17 GMT) on Monday near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, home to about 2 million people. It was followed by a 7.5-magnitude tremor and several aftershocks.
Erdoğan declared a disaster zone in the 10 provinces affected by the earthquakes on Tuesday, imposing a three-month state of emergency in the region.
Pope Francis offered his prayers Wednesday for the thousands of victims of the earthquake in Syria and Turkey and called on the international community to continue to support rescue and recovery efforts.
Three British nationals were missing since the earthquake, the UK’s foreign secretary said on Tuesday. “We assess that the likelihood of large-scale British casualties remains low,” James Cleverly said.
Four Australians are unaccounted for. Australia’s foreign affairs department is providing consular assistance to the families of the nationals who were where the catastrophe struck and to about 40 other Australians and their families who were also in the area.
At least 20 people have escaped from a jail holding members of Islamic State in north-west Syria, according to local media and Agence France-Presse. The military police prison in the town of Rajo, near the Turkish border, was damaged in the quakes and aftershocks, a source at the facility said, leading to a riot and escapes.
Syria was accused of playing politics with aid after the Syrian ambassador to the UN, Bassam Sabbagh, said his country should be responsible for the delivery of all aid into Syria, including those areas not under government control. The dispute over the control of the aid is hampering efforts into northern Syria, which is held by rebel groups. The government in Damascus allows aid to enter the region through only one border crossing.
Aid from Turkey to north-west Syria has temporarily stopped due to the fallout of the devastating earthquake, according to a UN spokesperson on Tuesday, leaving aid workers grappling with the problem of how to help people in a country fractured by war.
The UN’s cultural agency, Unesco, said on Tuesday it was ready to provide assistance after two sites listed on its world heritage list in Syria and Turkey sustained damage in the earthquakes. In addition to the old city of Aleppo in Syria and the fortress in the south-eastern Turkish city of Diyarbakır, Unesco said at least three other world heritage sites could be affected.
