A summary of today's developments
The number of people killed in Turkey and Syria after the earthquakes has risen to at least 12,049.
Syria’s civil defence said at least 2,992 people had been killed in north-west Syria. It said there were more than 2,850 injured.
Earlier, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, said the toll in his country had risen to 9,057. The president also condemned criticism of the government’s rescue effort, condemned by many in the country as slow and inadequate.
More than 298,000 people have been forced to leave their homes due to this week’s deadly earthquake, Syrian state media has reported. The number appeared to be a reference only to the parts of Syria under government control, not those held by other factions in the north-west of the country, which is closer to the epicentre of Monday’s quake.
The World Health Organization is sending expert teams and special flights with medical supplies to Turkey and Syria, the director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told a media briefing attended by Reuters.
Polish rescuers working in Turkey said they had pulled nine people alive from the rubble so far, including parents with two children and a 13-year-old girl from the ruins in the city of Besni.
Rescue workers and residents erupted in cheers when a family was saved from the rubble of a demolished building in the Syrian village of Bisnia on Wednesday. A man, his son and daughter were pulled out from beneath the rubble where they had been stuck for two days after a catastrophic earthquake.
Visiting Kahramanmaraş, which was at the epicentre of the quake, Erdoğan 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.
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.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said the loss of life in the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria has been “truly staggering, shocking”.
The US has deployed more than 150 search and rescue personnel to Turkey, he said.
Blinken added Washington will have more to say in days ahead about how the US will continue to support the Turkish and Syrian people.
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The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) will launch an appeal on Thursday to raise urgent funds to help people affected by the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria which have killed more than 12,000 people.
The DEC brings together 15 leading aid charities at times of crisis overseas. Fourteen of these are responding in Turkey and Syria including British Red Cross, ActionAid and Save the Children.
Salah Aboulegasem, an aid worker for Islamic Relief in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, said colleagues have told him there is a shortage of body bags in Syria.
He told Sky News: “The difference between Turkey and Syria is that in Turkey there’s a co-ordinated effort to have the search and rescue – whereas in Syria, this doesn’t exist.”
The aid worker added that the situation in Syria was already tough.
“It’s been 13 years of war, there are already a million refugees on that border. These are the coldest months – all of this has made the situation more challenging than it is.
“This is not something that will end tomorrow, this is something that will go on for a long time.”
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Earthquake death toll surpasses 12,000
The number of people killed in Turkey and Syria after the earthquakes has risen to at least 12,049.
Syria’s civil defence said at least 2,992 people had been killed in north-west Syria. It said there were more than 2,850 injured.
Earlier, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, said the toll in his country had risen to 9,057.
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Istanbul’s stock exchange operator suspended trading for five days until 15 February in an unprecedented step and cancelled all trades from Wednesday in the wake of the earthquakes.
Turkey’s Borsa Istanbul suspended trading on its equity and derivatives markets within minutes of opening after market-wide circuit breakers stopped the slide in the main index at 7%.
The country’s benchmark index fell as much as 16% from its Friday close before the Wednesday trades were cancelled.
“Due to the increase in volatility and extraordinary price movements after the earthquake disaster; in order to ensure the reliable, transparent, efficient, stable, fair and competitive functioning of the markets, equity market and equity and index derivatives in the derivatives market have been closed,” Borsa Istanbul’s statement said.
“Considering the low transaction volume that does not allow efficient price formation, all trades executed in the closed markets on 8 February 2023 will be cancelled.”
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“Rescue workers in Kahramanmaraş said they could smell corpses as they dug through piles of debris in the centre of a town now so devastated by the earthquake and its aftershocks that many buildings have been reduced entirely to rubble,” write Ruth Michaelson, Lorenzo Tondo and Deniz Barış Narlı.
“We hope there are two people still alive under there,” said Zafer Yildiz, a volunteer, pointing towards a pile of concrete, twisted metal and furniture. “Most of the people we found under the rubble were dead,” he said.
Mehmet Boskert carefully extracted a prayer book from the remains of a multistorey building, as he dug with gloved hands in the hope of finding his brother and sister-in-law alive.
“After I managed to dig myself out from the rubble when my house collapsed, I came here to try to find them,” he said. “I can only hope, but it seems too late. The emergency teams arrived too late, and only today did they bring these diggers. I hope they can do something.”
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The energy firm E.ON has said the earthquake in southern Turkey has affected the supply area of the local power grid operator Enerjisa Enerji, of which it owns 40%, adding that repair work is under way.
“We are dismayed and saddened by the two major earthquakes in Turkey and Syria ... they not only caused great human suffering and many deaths and injuries, but also massive damage to the infrastructure,” an E.ON spokesperson said in emailed comments.
“The supply area of our Turkish joint venture Enerjisa is also affected,” the spokesperson said, adding that the company mourned the loss of four employees, while others were wounded, some in a critical condition.
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Turkey is working on opening two more border gates with Syria to enable the flow of humanitarian aid to the neighbouring country, its foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said.
Speaking to reporters, Çavuşoğlu said damage on the Syria side of the road leading to Cilvegözü border gate, solely open for humanitarian aid as part of United Nations security council authorisation, was causing difficulties in quake response.
“There are some difficulties in terms of Turkey’s and the international community’s aid [reaching Syria]. For this reason, efforts are being made to open two more border gates,” Çavuşoğlu said.
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The Turkish carrier Pegasus Airlines has released the following statement:
“We continue to support those affected and to assist the work of aid organisations. Additional flights are being operated to and from earthquake-affected zones.
“We are continuing our efforts in coordination with AFAD (Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency) and official aid authorities to deliver aid and emergency supplies to the regions and evacuate those who are affected.
“Between 6 February and 8 February 2023 at 07:00 (local time), we operated a total of 22 relief flights, and 86 civilian passenger flights.
“To support those affected by the earthquake, all Pegasus Airlines direct domestic flights departing from Adana, Diyarbakır, Elazığ, Gaziantep, Kayseri, Malatya and Şanlıurfa between 7-12 February 2023 (up to and including) can be booked free of charge (no taxes payable).”
The airline added: “To support those affected by the earthquake, we have donated 5 million TL to AFAD (Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency). We have also donated 3 million TL to the Ahbap Association on behalf of Pegasus employees.
“To help animals affected by the earthquake, we have transported pet carriers in aircraft cabins to all the airports located in earthquake-affected zones.”
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Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, is seeking political advantage from the earthquake, pressing for foreign aid to be delivered through his territory as he aims to chip away at his international isolation, analysts say.
Amid an outpouring of sympathy for Syrians hit by the earthquake, Damascus has seized the moment to reiterate its longstanding demand for aid to be coordinated with his government, shunned by the west since Syria’s war began in 2011.
Western powers have shown no sign they are ready to meet that demand or re-engage with Assad, but his hand has been strengthened by difficulties facing cross-border aid flows into Syria’s rebel-held north-west from Turkey, Reuters reports.
The aid flows, critical to 4 million people in the area, have been temporarily halted since the earthquake, although a UN official expressed hope that they could resume on Thursday. Damascus has long said aid to the rebel enclave in the north should go via Syria, not across the Turkish border.
“Clearly there is some kind of opportunity in this crisis for Assad, for him to show ‘you need to work with me or through me’,” said Aron Lund, a Syria expert at the Century Foundation.
“If he is smart, he would facilitate aid to areas outside his control and get a chance to look like a responsible actor, but the regime is very stubborn.”
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Yunus Emre Kaya and his fiancée, Gulcin, had been planning a life together before Monday’s earthquake shattered their dreams.
Two days later, Kaya was unzipping a black bodybag to identify her body in a sports hall in Kahramanmaraş where casualties from the disaster had been laid out. He gave her a last embrace, Reuters reports. They had been due to marry in April.
“I was planning to clothe her with a wedding dress but now I will clothe her with a funeral shroud,” he said.
The 24-year-old textile worker, who met Gulcin after he completed military service three years ago when she was 16, said her death had left him numb.
“Imagine somebody tied your hands and feet and you cannot get up. There is no food, no water, no air,” he said. “This is how I am. I am like the walking dead.”
Kaya was asleep at home when the quake struck, hitting his house “like an explosion” shortly after 4am on Monday.
He grabbed his mother and took her out into the street, before running for 10 minutes straight to Gulcin’s house.
He found her home in ruins. There were people in the rubble and screams from those trapped underneath. He later learned that Gulcin and her sister had died.
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Agence France-Presse has a heartrending interview with a Syrian man, Malek Ibrahim, 40, who survived the quake with his wife and children in Idlib but has not heard from 30 relatives who are still unaccounted for elsewhere.
Malek has so far dug 10 family members from the rubble in Besnaya, a village 40km away in north-west Syria close to the Turkish border:
The whole family is gone. It’s complete genocide. Every time we recover a body, I remember the beautiful times that we spent together. We used to have fun and joke around, but never again... I will never see them again. We dig without sleep, hoping that someone may be alive. It’s a feeling I can’t describe, a tragedy.
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Reuters has spoken to a Syrian medic who said the scale of the injuries from Monday’s earthquake was more devastating than from the country’s 11-year civil war. Mohamad Zitoun, a 34-year-old surgeon from Aleppo working in a hospital near the Turkish border, told the agency:
This is a huge calamity. I lived through shelling and survived massacres. This is totally different, terrifying and horrific. The first massive wave of patients surpassed the ability of any medical team. Cases arriving for treatment from shelling and aerial bombing would come one after the other, in small waves, but the earthquake has seen 500 victims brought in each day, requiring dozens of operations. Many of the injured die within an hour or two as a result of trauma shock, heart failure or bleeding, especially since the weather is cold and they would have been under the rubble for eleven or twelve hours.”
Turkish police have detained at least 18 people and arrested five after what were described as “provocative posts” on social media about Turkey’s earthquake, according to a tweet from the force.
Earlier, the NetBlocks internet monitoring service said Twitter was being restricted “on multiple internet providers in Turkey”, adding that Turkey had “an extensive history of social media restrictions during national emergencies and safety incidents”.
WHO sends aid and experts; UN says "put politics aside"
The World Health Organization is sending expert teams and special flights with medical supplies to Turkey and Syria, the director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has told a media briefing attended by Reuters.
The WHO will send a high-level delegation to coordinate its response as well as three flights with medical supplies, one of which is already on its way to Istanbul. “The health needs are tremendous,” Dr Iman Shankiti, the organisation’s representative for Syria said.
Separately, a leading United Nations official called on Syria’s government to facilitate aid access to rebel-held areas in the north-west, warning that relief stocks would soon be depleted.
“Put politics aside and let us do our humanitarian work,” the UN’s resident Syria coordinator El-Mostafa Benlamlih said in an interview with AFP, warning: “We can’t afford to wait and negotiate. By the time we negotiate, it’s done, it’s finished.”
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Erdoğan condemns criticism, says Turkey death toll now 9,057
Speaking in Hatay province, close to the epicentre of the quakes, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said the number of people confirmed dead in Turkey had increased to 9,057, Reuters reports.
Syrian officials and a rescue group in rebel-held north-west Syria have said the death toll there has reached 2,662, bringing the combined tally to 11,719.
The president also condemned criticism of the government’s rescue effort, condemned by many in the country as slow and inadequate.
“This is a time for unity, solidarity. In a period like this, I cannot stomach people conducting negative campaigns for political interest,” Erdoğan said, adding that it was not possible to be prepared for such a disaster.
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The EU has confirmed it will send €3.5m (£3.1m) in aid to Syria, currently subject to sanctions by the bloc, after Damascus officially requested assistance on Wednesday. The EU is also sending an initial €3m in aid to Turkey.
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More on those earlier reports that Twitter is down across parts of Turkey.
Agence France-Presse reported that the platform “became inaccessible on major Turkish mobile providers on Wednesday” as online criticism mounted of the government’s response to this week’s deadly earthquake.
Netblocks.org, a social media monitor that tracks internet outages, said Twitter was being restricted “on multiple internet providers in Turkey”, adding that Turkey had “an extensive history of social media restrictions during national emergencies and safety incidents”.
⚠️ Confirmed: Real-time network data show Twitter has been restricted in #Turkey; the filtering is applied on major internet providers and comes as the public come to rely on the service in the aftermath of a series of deadly earthquakes
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) February 8, 2023
📰 Report: https://t.co/CEbfgeBpvz pic.twitter.com/3884wMpYD2
AFP noted that Turkish police had detained more than a dozen people since Monday’s earthquakes over social media posts that criticised President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government has been dealing with the disaster.
Netblocks later added that live metrics showed the restriction “has been extended to more internet providers” and that the measure was “likely to impact community rescue efforts underway after the series of deadly earthquakes on Monday”.
⚠️ Update: Live metrics show that the Twitter restriction in #Turkey has been extended to more internet providers. The filtering measure is likely to impact community rescue efforts underway after the series of deadly earthquakes on Monday.
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) February 8, 2023
📰 Report: https://t.co/CEbfgeBpvz pic.twitter.com/51j66jAydA
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Hello, this is Jon Henley taking over the liveblog from Martin Belam who has been at the helm since early morning.
David Miliband, head of the global humanitarian aid NGO International Rescue Committee, has said that for Syria in particular, the devastating 7.8- and 7.5-magnitude quakes were “truly a crisis within a crisis”.
Miliband, a former British foreign secretary, said more than 15 million Syrians were in need of humanitarian assistance even before the quakes struck, more than at any time since the start of the country’s 11-year civil war:
Civilian infrastructure and basic services had been left decimated by more than a decade of conflict. Across Syria, less than 60% of hospitals and public health care centres were fully functional. For the areas worst hit by the earthquake in the northwest of Syria, humanitarian access was already heavily constrained. Most humanitarian aid comes in via one remaining UN-mandated crossing-point with Türkiye. One channel for humanitarian aid was already insufficient, making a challenging operating environment all the more so. It will now take even more extraordinary efforts to reach those in need, making it all the more critical to ensure levels of aid increase at pace.
Miliband said the immediate priority must be “search and rescue capacity to save lives, and essential goods and medical attention to support those who have survived”.
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Search and rescue attempts are being hampered in Turkey and Syria by cold weather and by the wider destruction of infrastructure after Monday’s quake. Damaged railway tracks are just one of the hinderances.
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Associated Press reports that rescuers used truck-mounted cranes to lift huge concrete slabs from a collapsed high-rise apartment building in the Turkish city of Adana where nearly 60 people are believed to remain trapped.
More than two dozen rescuers were sifting through the debris on Wednesday, shouting for silence every few minutes in the hope of picking up any voices or sounds from under the rubble.
In one omen of hope, volunteer rescuer Bekir Biger said he uncovered a blue and yellow bird alive inside its crushed cage nearly 60 hours after the building’s collapse.
Onlookers, friends and relatives of the missing sat by makeshift fires awaiting news. One man, Suat Yarkan, said his aunt and two adult daughters were asleep in their fourth-floor apartment when the quake struck.
Yarkan said he believes that rescuers will “recover everyone.” He told reporters: “Look at the bird. Sixty hours.”
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This map shows the number and size of the aftershocks striking the region since the initial quake in the early hours of Monday morning.
Britain said on Wednesday it would provide more support, including items such as tents and blankets, to help survivors in freezing conditions in Turkey and Syria after the earthquake there on Monday.
“Our priority is to ensure life-saving assistance is given to those most in need, coordinated with the Turkish government, UN and international partners,” said the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, Reuters reports.
The government said the equipment would meet the needs of up to 15,000 people.
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Agence France-Presse reports from Gaziantep that green metal coffins were lined up 10 at a time under a shelter in the city’s main cemetery on Wednesday for an imam to pray for victims of Turkey’s devastating earthquake before their hurried burial.
Gaziantep mayor Fatma Sahin has made an appeal for more Muslim preachers to come forward to help with funerals at cemeteries.
Hundreds of men formed lines in front of the coffins at Yesilkent as the imam spoke into a headset microphone, stopping in front of each victim to give a blessing. Women formed their own congregation.
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Reuters has a quick snap that a senior UN aid official has told the news agency they are hopeful they will be able to deliver aid to north-west Syria via the Turkish border tomorrow.
More details soon …
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There are some unconfirmed reports that traffic to Twitter is being restricted in Turkey. It was being used as a channel to communicate the whereabouts of people trapped in rubble, but Turkish police yesterday had said they detained at least four people who they accused of spreading misinformation on the platform and spreading panic about the quake.
Earlier today Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned his people to only listen to official channels of information and not “provocateurs”.
Here are some of the latest images we have been sent from Turkey, Syria and beyond, as search and rescue efforts continue across the zone affected by the earthquake, which is now known to have killed at least 11,200 people.
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The BBC’s Turkish language service is reporting that the Dutch Urban Search and Rescue Team has rescued seven people from under rubble in Hatay since noon yesterday. The team say they worked non-stop for 24 hours.
It also reports that one of eight Dutch citizens who had been reported missing in the quake has been found.
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Nearly 300,000 displaced by quake in Syria – state media
More than 298,000 people have been forced to leave their homes due to this week’s deadly earthquake, Syrian state media has reported.
The number appeared to be a reference only to the parts of Syria under government control, not those held by other factions in the north-west of the country, which is closer to the epicentre of Monday’s quake.
Reuters reports the state news agency Sana as quoting Hussein Makhlouf, minister of local administration and environment, as saying the state had opened 180 shelters for displaced people.
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Earlier today, the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said at prime minister’s questions that the UK government was in touch with the Turkish and Syrian authorities and the UK was “providing all assistance that they have required of us”.
The opposition leader, Sir Keir Starmer, said: “Over 11,000 people have died as a result of the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria. And that number is sadly rising. And I know many families here in the UK will be anxiously awaiting news.
“I’m sure I speak for the whole in saying our hearts go out to each and every victim and their families. And we must do all we can to support the rescue and recovery effort.”
Sunak responded: “Can I first join with the honourable member for paying our respects and thoughts to the people of Turkey and Syria, particularly those affected by the earthquake, and the first responders who are doing such a valiant job?
“The house will be reassured to know that we are in touch with the Turkish and Syrian authorities and providing all assistance that they have required of us, including 77 search and rescue responders that arrived yesterday and have already begun work.
“And I spoke to the president yesterday to ensure that we are in close communication.”
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Syrian officials said the bodies of more than 100 Syrians who died during the earthquake in Turkey were brought back home for burial through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing.
Associated Press reports that Mazen Alloush, an official on the Syrian side of the border, said 20 more bodies were on their way to the border, adding that all of them were Syrian refugees who fled war in their country.
Polish firefighters say they have rescued nine people including family of four from Besni, Turkey
While concerns are rising for those still trapped, Polish rescuers working in Turkey said they had pulled nine people alive from the rubble so far, including parents with two children and a 13-year-old girl from the ruins in the city of Besni.
While they acknowledged that low temperatures were working against them, Associated Press report two firefighters told Polish TVN24 that the fact that people were caught in bed under warm covers by the pre-dawn quake could help. The rescuers said they were currently trying to reach a woman who they know is in her bed.
Speaking to Poland’s news agency PAP, Brig Grzegorz Borowiec said “We managed to rescue nine people including a family of four, so we are positive about further operations. We started the new day with great optimism. Three more units are moving so we hope to find more people.”
Borowiec, who is head of the Polish group, said “the situation is very, very difficult. There is a shortage of everything, a shortage of people to help. There is a shortage of heavy equipment to rescue people trapped under the rubble.
“Local services are overwhelmed. The scale of the damage from the two earthquakes is unimaginable. This is evidenced by the numbers of victims and rescued people.”
It isn’t just people who are being found alive under the rubble still. In Hatay in Turkey this dog was rescued 55 hours after the initial quake struck.
Rescuers and resident cheer when family is saved from rubble in Syrian village
Rescue workers and residents erupted in cheers when a family was saved from the rubble of a demolished building in the Syrian village of Bisnia on Wednesday. A man, his son and daughter were pulled out from beneath the rubble where they had been stuck for two days after a catastrophic earthquake.
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Associated Press have spoken to a former journalist, Ozel Pikal, in the Turkish city of Malatya. He told AP bodies were placed side by side on the ground, covered in blankets, while rescuers waited for funeral vehicles to pick them up.
Pikal, who took part in the rescue efforts, said he believes at least some of the victims may have frozen to death as temperatures dipped to -6C (21F).
“Today isn’t a pleasant day, because as of today there is no hope left in Malatya,” Pikal told reporters by telephone. “No one is coming out alive from the rubble.”
Pikal said a hotel building collapsed in the city, and more than a hundred people may be trapped.
There was a shortage of rescuers in the area he was in, and the cold hampered rescue efforts by volunteers and government teams, he said. Road closures and damage in the region have also impeded mobility and access.
“Our hands cannot pick up anything because of the cold,” said Pikal.
Summary of the day so far …
It is 3pm in Ankara and Damascus. This is the latest situation following Monday’s devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria …
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 at 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.
Pope Francis offered his prayers 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.
In the UK, the newly appointed chair of the ruling Conservative party said the country would be ready to respond to any further requests from Turkey for support.
Kenan Akbayram, a geologist at the University of Bingöl, said it is difficult to predict how long aftershocks might continue, adding that the 2020 earthquake in the eastern city of Elazig, which registered at a magnitude of over 6, still has its own aftershock sequences which his team of scientists have observed.
Three British nationals are missing after 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 following the earthquakes. 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.
Satellite images released by Maxar Technologies give an idea of the scale of the challenge for emergency crews over the coming days. They show in vivid detail the breadth of the destruction that has unfolded in towns, cities and villages across the region.
Reuters is carrying some more quotes from Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who spoke to the media while on a visit to Kahramanmaraş earlier.
“On the first day we experienced some issues but then on the second day and today the situation is under control,” he said.
The government aims to build housing within one year for those left without a home in the 10 provinces affected, he added.
“We had some problems in airports and roads but we are better today. We will be better tomorrow and later. We still have some issues with fuel...but we will overcome those too,” Erdoğan said after visiting tents set up by the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).
He also said citizens should only heed communication from authorities and ignore “provocateurs”.
Faisal Ali has spoken for the Guardian to a geologist based in the region affected by the quake:
It is difficult to tell how long aftershocks will last after Monday’s quake, says Kenan Akbayram, a geologist at the University of Bingöl, whose city was badly affected by the event. But by employing “aftershock forecasts” he says – a technique that relies on observations from prior earthquakes – it is possible to make rough predictions.
“In the past powerful earthquakes have caused aftershocks for two or three years,” says Akbayram, adding that the 2020 earthquake in the eastern city of Elazig, which registered at a magnitude of over 6, still has its own aftershock sequences which his team of scientists have observed.
Akbayram says that the earthquake was not unexpected. “We were expecting a rupture along the fault lines in this area,” he says, as the areas where the earthquake struck are what geologists refer to as a seismic gap.
A seismic gap is an area in an active earthquake zone that has not witnessed the expected earthquakes. This part of the eastern Anatolian fault zone was ruptured in the 1500s according to records, and more recently some parts of the fault zone moved in 1822, says Akbayram, “so there was a risk of possible movement and we were aware of it.”
Akbayram warns that there are other fault zones in Turkey which haven’t experienced seismic activity for a long time, identifying the Aegean region, areas around the Marmara sea which includes the major cities of Bursa and Istanbul, and the city of Bingöl where he is based. “We in the scientific community are aware of these seismic gaps, but I cannot say that we are ready from an engineering perspective.”
Combined death toll in Turkey and Syria rises to over 11,200
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has announced that the death toll from Monday’s quake has reached 8,754. Combined with the 2,470 known deaths in Syria, that brings the total official death toll to 11,224.
The World Health Organization has suggested the final toll could rise as high as 20,000. A similar-sized earthquake in the region in 1999 killed at least 17,000 people.
Reuters reports that, speaking to reporters in the Kahramanmaraş province near the epicentre of the earthquake, with constant ambulance sirens in the background, Erdoğan said there had been problems with roads and airports but that everything would get better by the day.
He also said citizens should only heed communication from authorities and ignore “provocateurs,” as thousands of people complain about the lack of resources and slow response by officials. Turkish police have detained several people over their social media posts about the earthquake.
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Syria requests aid through EU civil protection mechanism
Syria has activated the EU civil protection mechanism two days after the earthquake, the European Commission’s head of crisis management Janez Lenarcic said on Wednesday.
“Earlier today, this morning, we have received a request from the government of Syria for assistance through the civil protection mechanism,” Reuters reports Lenarcic told the media.
Lenarcic said member states are encouraged to contribute with assistance as requested.
In October 2001, the European Commission established the EU civil protection mechanism. When an emergency overwhelms the response capabilities of a country in Europe and beyond, it can request assistance from the programme.
In addition to the 27 EU member states, there are currently eight other participating states (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, and Turkey). The European Commission’s website say that since its inception, the mechanism has responded to over 600 requests for assistance inside and outside the EU.
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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.
Operations at the port were shut down until further notice after a fire broke out due to the earthquakes that hit the region on Monday, and freighters were diverted to other ports.
A source from the port told Reuters the flames had not spread to the area where flammable materials were stored, and that the nature of the fire, which has unleashed a huge cloud of black smoke over the city, was still unclear.
“We are suspecting it is plastic raw material or chemical but we could not clearly determine it as the containers collapsed and scattered,” the source said.
Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us from Turkey over the news wires
Pope Francis offered his prayers 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.
“I am praying for them with emotion and I wanted to say that I am close to these people, to the families of the victims and everyone who is suffering from this devastating disaster,” he said, Reuters reports.
“I thank those who are offering help and encourage everyone to show solidarity with these countries, some of which have already been battered by a long war,” he added at the end of his weekly audience in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican on Wednesday.
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Cold weather continues to be expected in the region struck by Monday’s quake. The BBC’s Turkish language service reports that Turkey’s meteorological service has predicted minimum and maximum temperatures for Kahramanmaraş today as -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.
The White Helmets in Syria, who have been conducting rescue operations in the rebel-held north-west of the civil war-wracked country have posted to social media to state that four of their volunteers and their families are among the victims of the quake there.
This aerial drone footage taken over the Turkish city of Kahramanmaraş shows the scale of destruction two days after the quake shook south-east Turkey. Buildings can be seen in the footage reduced to just debris and collapsed concrete mounds.
Some families have been forced to try to shelter in the streets in Turkey, while others have been lucky enough to find trains or state buildings to use as temporary accommodation.
AFP reports that in Gaziantep in Turkey, shops are closed and there is no heat because gas lines have been cut to avoid explosions. Finding petrol was tough. About 100 people wrapped in blankets slept in the lounge of an airport terminal, it reports.
“We saw the buildings collapse so we know we are lucky to be alive,” said Zahide Sutcu, who went to the airport with her two small children.
“But now our lives have so much uncertainty. How will I look after these children?”
In Kahramanmaraş, reporters spoke to Ali Sagiroglu, who expressed frustration at the response of emergency services.
“I can’t get my brother back from the ruins. I can’t get my nephew back. Look around here. There is no state official here, for God’s sake,” he said.
“For two days we haven’t seen the state around here. Children are freezing from the cold.”
Death toll in Turkey and Syria rises to over 9,500
Turkey’s disaster management authority has raised the official death toll from Monday’s quake up to 7,108 people. The combined total, with the 2,470 deaths recorded officially in Syria, has reached 9,578.
The numbers are expected to continue to rise as further rescue work and excavations are carried out. Emergency services have been hampered by poor weather.
In the UK, the newly appointed chair of the ruling Conservative party said the country would be ready to respond to any further requests from Turkey for support.
Greg Hands defended the UK’s commitment to foreign aid spending which the Government slashed from 0.7% to 0.5% in 2021.
He told viewers of Sky News in the UK: “We stand ready to provide more assistance should further requests come through.”
Asked about financial aid to the region, he said: “We already provide, of course, a lot to the region. We’re one of the biggest bilateral donors, and particularly to Syria.
“I think that will be something that would have to be looked at in the round as and when requests come in for that assistance.”
“The UK, of course, shapes up very favourably when it comes to our aid budget overall,” he said. “And obviously we have the commitment to restore the aid budget as soon as we’re able, the fiscal position here in the UK allows us. There’s been no reduction to aid to the region. We remain one of the biggest bilateral donors in particular to Syria. The awful situation has been going on there obviously in advance of the earthquake.”
Here is a summary from Associated Press of some of the international aid efforts that are being sent to Turkey and Syria.
The European Union has mobilized 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.
The US is coordinating immediate assistance to Turkey, including teams to support search and rescue efforts. In California, nearly 100 Los Angeles County firefighters and structural engineers, along with six specially trained dogs, were being sent to Turkey.
Russia as sent rescue team to Syria, where Russian military deployed in that country already had sent ten units comprising 300 people to help clear debris and search for survivors. The Russian military has set up points to distribute humanitarian assistance. Russia also has offered help to Turkey, which has been accepted.
Israel’s army is sending a search and rescue team of 150 engineers, medical personnel and other aid workers to render lifesaving aid in Turkey. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has also approved a request for humanitarian aid for Syria, although it remains unclear who made the request and how it would be delivered. Syria and Israel have no formal diplomatic relations.
A team of 82 rescuers sent by China has arrived in Adana, Turkey. They include specialists in search and rescue as well as medical treatment, and they brought in 21 tons of rescue equipment and supplies.
Greece, Lebanon, Germany, South Korea, Algeria, Pakistan, Japan, the UK and Australia are among many other countries to send or promise assistance.
Combined Turkey and Syria death toll rises to 9,427
Turkey has revised up the death toll again from the earthquake, with authorities now saying that 6,957 people have been killed there. With the 2,470 deaths in Syria included, the total number killed by Monday’s quake now stands at 9,427.
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This girl was rescued after being trapped for 40 hours in Salqin, Idlib:
Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us over the news wires from the disaster zone.
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Burcin Gercek for Agence France-Presse reported overnight on some of the anger in Turkey at the speed of the rescue response there.
Despite the importance of every minute, no rescue team arrived at the scene in parts of the city of Gaziantep for the critical first 12 hours after the disaster, forcing victims’ relatives and local police to clear the ruins by hand, witnesses said.
And when the rescuers finally came on Monday evening, they only worked for a few hours before breaking for the night, residents told AFP.
“People revolted (on Tuesday) morning. The police had to intervene,” said Celal Deniz, 61, whose brother and nephews remain trapped.
In the miserable cold, Deniz and his relatives try to warm themselves around a fire they lit in the open air, not too far from the destroyed building.
“There isn’t anywhere that our rescuers cannot reach,” Turkey’s Red Crescent chief Kerem Kinik declared in a TV interview.
But Deniz disagreed.
“They don’t know what the people have gone through,” he said.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is set to travel to town of Pazarcık, near the epicentre of the quake, and to the worst-hit province of Hatay on Wednesday, Associated Press reports.
Nearly two days after the magnitude 7.8 quake struck south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria, killing more than 8,500 people, search teams from more than two dozen countries have joined the Turkish emergency personnel, and aid pledges have been pouring in.
Many survivors in Turkey have had to sleep in cars, outside or in government shelters.
“We don’t have a tent, we don’t have a heating stove, we don’t have anything. Our children are in bad shape. We are all getting wet under the rain and our kids are out in the cold,” Aysan Kurt, 27, told the AP. “We did not die from hunger or the earthquake, but we will die freezing from the cold.”
In Syria, aid efforts have been hampered by the ongoing war and the isolation of the rebel-held region along the border, which is surrounded by Russia-backed government forces. Syria itself is an international pariah under western sanctions linked to the war.
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Welcome and summary so far …
Welcome to the Guardian’s continued live coverage of the aftermath of the devastating quake in southern Turkey and Syria, which has so far killed more than 8,500 people. It has just gone 10.30am in Ankara and Damascus, and this is the latest information we have:
The latest death toll from Monday’s catastrophic earthquake stands at 8,704. On Wednesday morning, AFP reported that Syria’s death toll had climbed to 2,470. At least 6,234 have died in Turkey. The numbers are expected to continue to increase during the day as more rubble is excavated.
Turkey’s disaster agency said 37,011 people had been injured, adding that more than 79,000 personnel were engaged in search and rescue operations.
More than 8,000 people so far have been pulled from the debris in Turkey, said the Turkish vice-president, Fuat Oktay. About 380,000 people have taken refuge in government shelters or hotels, with others huddling in shopping malls, stadiums, mosques and community centres.
On Tuesday afternoon, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared a disaster zone in the 10 provinces affected by the earthquakes, imposing a state of emergency in the region for three months.
Turkey’s disaster management agency said it had 11,342 reports of collapsed buildings, of which 5,775 had been confirmed. The ministry of transport and infrastructure said that on Monday night 3,400 people had taken shelter in trains being used as emergency accommodation.
In Turkey, anger is mounting over what was described as a slow and inadequate response by authorities. Many countries have sent emergency aid and search and rescue assistance already.
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 Syrian government control.
Three British nationals are missing after 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 following the earthquakes. 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.
Satellite images released by Maxar Technologies give an idea of the scale of the challenge for emergency crews over the coming days. They show in vivid detail the breadth of the destruction that has unfolded in towns, cities and villages across the region.
This is Martin Belam in London. I will be with you for the next few hours, and you can contact me on martin.belam@theguardian.com
