On the ground, many people in Turkey and Syria spent a third night sleeping outside or in cars in freezing winter temperatures. Read more at straitstimes.com.
has soared to more than 16,000 on Thursday, as hopes faded of many people being found alive 72 hours since the disaster and frustration simmered over the slow delivery of aid.holding an election scheduled for May 14
The earthquake, which struck in the dead of night and was followed by powerful aftershocks, is on course to be Turkey’s deadliest since 1999, when a similarly powerful tremor killed more than 17,000. “The death toll and injured is expected to rise much higher with many families still under collapsed buildings,” said Mr Raed Saleh, head of the rescue service in the northwest, said on Thursday morning.UN aid into northwest Syria, a vital lifeline for four million people, is expected to begin flowing again on Thursday after the route was severed by the quake, aid officials said.
After facing criticism over the response, Mr Erdogan said on a visit to the disaster zone on Wednesday that operations were now working normally and promised no one would be left homeless.One official said it was now too early to discuss elections given 15 per cent of Turks lived in the affected area. “At the moment there are very serious difficulties in holding an election on May 14,” as had been planned, he said.
“There are a lot of people under the rubble there are no heavy equipment to pull them out and the voluntary teams are not able to work with light equipment,” Mr Yousef Nahas, a resident of Salqeen in Syria’s northwest, contacted by phone. Mr Erdogan, who declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces and sent troops to help, visited Kahramanmaras on Wednesday, where he said there had been early problems with roads and airports but “we are better today”.
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