The death toll from the Turkey-Syria earthquakes has passe 19,000. At least 16,546 people have in Turkey, according to the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. While at least 3,162 have been killed in Syria.
The first UN aid convoy has reache rebel-held northwest Syria from Turkey.
Ukrainian rescuers help save lives in Turkey
Ukrainian rescue experts, more used to emergencies in a war zone at home. Have brought their skills to Turkey to search flattene buildings for survivors, erect tents and offer first aid.
Turkey-Syria earthquake live news: Survivors recall ‘atomic bomb’
“There is a war in our country, but we understand that we have to help. This aid is mutual. There is no other way to do it,” said Oleksandr Khorunzhyi, a spokesman for the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.
Kyiv has sent 88 people to Turkey to help with the disaster. The team includes specialists in search and rescue operations, doctors, dog handlers and firefighters.
Turkish foreign minister, US secretary of state discuss situation in Turkey
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and US Secretary of State Antony. Blinken have spoken about the situation in Turkey in a phone call.
Turkey-Syria earthquake live news: Survivors recall ‘atomic bomb’
Cavusoglu and Blinken discusse ongoing relief operations in the affected areas.
“Given the magnitude of the earthquakes and difficulties in accessing affected areas in North West Syria. The UK will be providing The White Helmets with additional funding to aid their major search-and-rescue operations,” the UK said in a statement.
The earthquakes have caused great destruction in 10 provinces and “can be describe as the disaster of the century,” Erdogan has said. While inspecting search and rescue efforts in the province of Osmaniye, where he met quake victims.
“Hundreds of thousands of people are taking part in relief efforts. All kinds of teams and vehicles from across the country have been dispatched to the region,” he said.
After visiting the earthquake victims at a hospital in Kilis, Erdogan said: “Last Monday, we were confronte with the worst earthquake this region has ever seen in its history.”
A two-year-old boy has been rescued from a collapsed building after being trappe for 79 hours in its rubble.
Footage from Turkey’s IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation showe rescue workers looking into a narrow opening in debris in Antakya and pulling out the boy as he wept.
Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Kahramanmaras, says the ruins of a quake-hit building have become “a complete graveyard”.
“An elderly woman told me this morning, ‘Please, make my voice heard,’ because her son, daughter-in-law and her grandchild were still under this collapsed building,” Serdar said.
“This is a mockery. The trucks had very, very few things,” he said, adding the cargo could have “fit in one truck”.
Rahman’s group first thought the trucks were to carry mainly blankets and other aid. But when an observatory worker actually looked at the cargo and discovered the supplies included dete