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.
