Turkey-Syria earthquake: Race to find survivors as quake toll tops 7,100

Search teams and emergency aid from around the world poured into Turkey and Syria on Tuesday as rescuers working in freezing temperatures dug — sometimes with their bare hands — through the remains of buildings flattened by a powerful earthquake. The toll soared above 7,100 and was still expected to rise.

Also See: Turkey Earthquake Live Updates

Unstable tangled piles of metal and concrete made the search efforts perilous, while freezing temperatures made them ever more urgent, as worries grew about how long those trapped could survive in the cold. More than 8,000 people have been pulled from the debris in Turkiye alone, and some 380,000 have taken refuge in government shelters or hotels. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said 13 million of the country’s 85 million were affected in someway — and declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces for three months.



With the damage from Monday’s quake in Turkiye and Syria spread over a wide area, the relief operation often struggled to reach devastated towns, and voices that had been crying out from the rubble fell silent. A winter storm has compounded the misery by rendering many roads almost impassable, resulting in traffic jams that stretch for kilometres in some regions.

“It’s now a race against time,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “Every minute, every hour that passes, the chances of finding survivors alive diminishes. ”

The cold, rain and snow are a risk both for people forced from their homes and the survivors buried under debris. “Wecould hear them, they were calling for help,” said Ali Silo, whose two relatives could not be saved in the Turkish town of Nurdagi. 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.


The scale of the suffering — and the accompanying rescue effort — were staggering.

Turkiye’s emergency management agency said the total number of deaths in the country had passed 4,500, with some 26,000 people injured. The death toll in government-held areas of Syria climbed over 800, with some 1,400 injured, according to the health ministry. At least 900 people have died in the rebel held northwest, as per the White Helmets, the emergency organisation leading rescue operations, with over 2,300 injured.
In Turkiye, several took shelter in malls, stadiums, mosques and community centres, while others spent the night outside in blankets gathering around fires. Many took to social media to plead for assistance for loved ones believed to be trapped under the rubble — and Turkiye’s state-run Anadolu Agency quoted interior ministry officials as saying all calls were being “collected meticulously” and the information relayed to search teams. Around 23 million people are likely to be affected by the earthquake, a WHO official said.



Nurgul Atay said she could hear her mother’s voice beneath the rubble of a collapsed building in the Turkish city of Antakya, but that her and others’ efforts to get into the ruins had been futile without any heavy equipment to help. “If only we could lift the concrete slab we’d be able to reach her,” she said. “My mom is 70 years old, she won’t be able to withstand this for long. ” But help did reach some. In the Syrian town of Jindayris, a girl called Nour was pulled alive from the wreckage of a building on Monday. Teams from nearly 30 countries around the world headed for Turkiye or Syria.