Authorities fear that the death toll from Monday’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake, followed by a magnitude 7.6 earthquake and several aftershocks, will rise further as rescuers search for survivors among tangles of metal and concrete spread across a region already suffering from Syria’s 12-year civil war and a refugee crisis.
Rescuers worked through the night and into Tuesday morning, hoping to find more survivors among the rubble while those trapped cried out for aid from beneath mountains of debris.
According to Yunus Sezer, the chairman of Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), the death toll in Turkey is 2,921, with 15,834 people injured.
According to the Ministry of Health and the rescue organisation White Helmets, on Monday evening, at least 1,300 people died in Syria.
Freezing winter temperatures and snowfall in the damaged region have exacerbated the predicament of many thousands of individuals who have been injured or made homeless as a result of the earthquake. Building collapses and ruined roadways have impeded efforts to locate survivors and deliver critical supplies to affected areas.
The Syrian American Medical Society, which operates hospitals in northern Syria and southern Turkey, said in a statement that its facilities were overcrowded with patients filling the hallways and that trauma supplies and a comprehensive emergency response to save lives and treat the injured were urgently needed.
Governments and humanitarian organisations have hurried to send personnel, finances, and equipment to Turkey and Syria.