Turkey-Syria Earthquake: Death toll rises to at least 16, 000, many injured

As rescuers tried to help numerous individuals still buried under rubble on Thursday, freezing temperatures added to the suffering of survivors of a devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria and killed more than 16,000 people.

As rescue operations continue through the 72-hour mark, which disaster experts consider the most likely period to save lives, the death toll from Monday's 7.8-magnitude earthquake is predicted to increase sharply.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, acknowledged "shortcomings" on Wednesday in response to criticism of his administration's handling of the deadly earthquake.

The survivors were left to search for food and shelter while, in some cases, watching helplessly as their loved ones cried out for aid before going silent under the rubble.

“My nephew, my sister-in-law and my sister-in-law’s sister are in the ruins. They are trapped under the ruins and there is no sign of life,” said Semire Coban, a kindergarten teacher, in Turkey’s Hatay province.

“We can’t reach them. We are trying to talk to them, but they are not responding… We are waiting for help. It has been 48 hours now,” she said.

Despite the rising death toll, rescuers kept removing survivors from the wreckage.

Erdogan visited Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of the earthquake, one of the worst-hit areas, and acknowledged shortcomings in the response as internet criticism increased.

“Of course, there are shortcomings. The conditions are clear to see. It’s not possible to be ready for a disaster like this,” he said.

According to AFP journalists and the NetBlocks online monitoring company, Twitter access resumed on Thursday morning after the social network was unavailable on Turkish mobile networks for several hours on Wednesday.

Following discussions between Turkish officials and Twitter executives, Omer Fatih Sayan, the deputy minister of infrastructure, tweeted on Thursday that Turkey expects the social network to collaborate more closely with it in the "battle against disinformation."

Early on Thursday, the temperature in Gaziantep dropped to minus five degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit), but many families chose to spend the night in their cars and homemade tents because they were too afraid to stay inside their houses or were not allowed to.

Because it was warmer than waiting in a tent, parents carried their children on their shoulders as they navigated the streets of the city in southeast Turkey, close to the epicenter of the earthquake.

“When we sit down, it is painful, and I fear for anyone who is trapped under the rubble in this,” said Melek Halici, who wrapped her two-year-old daughter in a blanket as they watched rescuers working late into Wednesday night.

Officials and medical personnel reported that a total of 16,035, including 12,873 fatalities in Turkey and at least 3,162 in neighboring Syria, were caused by the earthquake on Monday. Experts anticipate a big increase in the number.

In order to mobilize foreign funding for Syria and Turkey, the EU is preparing a donor meeting in Brussels in March.

“We are now racing against the clock to save lives together,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Twitter.

“No one should be left alone when a tragedy like this hits a people,” she said.

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