Search teams and emergency aid from around the world poured into Turkey and Syria as rescuers working in freezing temperatures dug – sometimes with their bare hands – through the remains of buildings flattened by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake.
The death toll soared above 7,700 and was expected to rise further — with the World Health Organisation announcing early on Wednesday morning that the number of fatalities could reach 20,000. With the damage spread over a wide area, the massive relief operation often struggled to reach devastated towns, and voices that had been crying out from the rubble fell silent.
“We could hear their voices, they were calling for help,” said Ali Silo, whose two relatives could not be saved in the Turkish town of Nurdag. In the end, it was left to Silo, a Syrian who arrived from Hama a decade ago, and other residents to recover the bodies and those of two other victims.
