Turkey, Syria Earthquake Live Updates: Desperate search near epicenter as toll nears 12,000

The World Health Organization has warned that up to 23 million people could be affected by the massive earthquake and urged nations to rush help to the disaster zone.

Erdogan said 13 million of the country's 85 million people were affected, and he declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces. More than 8,000 people have been pulled from the debris in Turkey, and some 380,000 have taken refuge in government shelters or hotels, authorities said. Many survivors in Turkey have had to sleep in cars, outside or in government shelters.

The death toll from a massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria rose to more than 8,700 on Wednesday, official data showed, with rescue workers racing to reach trapped survivors. Officials and medics said 6,234 people had died in Turkey and 2,470 in Syria, bringing the total to 8,704.

Turkey is home to millions of refugees from the war. The affected area in Syria is divided between government-controlled territory and the country’s last opposition-held enclave, where millions rely on humanitarian aid. As many as 23 million people could be affected in the quake-hit region, according to Adelheid Marschang, a senior emergencies officer with the World Health Organization, who called it a “crisis on top of multiple crises.”

The death toll in Syria from a devastating earthquake has surpassed 2,500, according to Syrian state media and a rescue service operating in the insurgent-held northwest. The White Helmets rescue team said on Twitter the casualty toll in insurgent-held areas has risen to more than 1,280 deaths and more than 2,600 injured.

Afghanistan's Taliban administration will send around $165,000 in aid to Turkey and Syria to help the response to a devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck this week, according to a foreign ministry statement. Afghanistan is in the grips of a severe economic and humanitarian crisis and is itself the location of one of the United Nation's largest humanitarian aid programs. The Taliban took over in 2021 as foreign forces withdrew, sparking enforcement of sanctions on its banking sector, and no capital has formally recognised its government.

Another earthquake of magnitude 4.3 jolted Nurdagi district, a city in Gaziantep Province of Turkey on Wednesday. The quake was reported around 8:31 am at a depth of 10 km, 15 km south of Nurdagi at the location, 37.032°N 36.721°E, reported by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

- June 22, 2022: In Afghanistan, more than 1,100 people died in magnitude 6.1 earthquake.- Aug. 14, 2021: In Haiti, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake killed more than 2,200 people.- Sept. 28, 2018: A magnitude 7.5 earthquake hit Indonesia, triggering a tsunami and killing more than 4,300 people.- April 25, 2015: In Nepal, more than 8,800 people were killed by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake.

A UN joint statement has said that nearly 70 per cent of the population was in need of humanitarian assistance even before the massive 7.8-magnitude quake struck the country devastated by the 12-year prolonged crisis.The statement was issued on Tuesday by the UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator ad interim for Syria, El-Mostafa Benlamlih, and the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, Muhannad Hadi. "We express our sincere condolences to the victims' families and wish a speedy recovery to the injured. We stand in solidarity with the people of Syria and Turkey during this time of need. Urgent support is needed to be able to respond to all those who have been affected in this terrible tragedy," Benlamlih was quoted as saying.

Flags of the 30 NATO member states at the military alliance's headquarters in Brussels flew at half-staff to honour the nearly 8,000 people who lost their lives in the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the two nations earlier this week. In a Twitter post on Tuesday, the 30-member alliance, of which Turkey is a member, said: "All flags at NATO Headquarters are at half-mast today in solidarity with our ally Turkey." NATO also outlined its contributions to relief efforts. "Over 1,400 emergency response

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has sent condolences to his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad over the deadly earthquake that has killed nearly 8,000 in Turkey and Syria, Pyongyang's state media said on Wednesday. In the message sent to President Assad on Tuesday, Kim voiced his condolences to victims of the powerful quake that struck the northern region of Syria, according to the North's state-run radio network Korean Central Broadcasting Station.

The death toll in the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday has soared to at least 7,926, CNN reported citing officials. At least 5,894 people were killed and 34,810 people injured in Turkey, according to Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay, who passed the statement on Tuesday whereas the Syrian Civil Defense, known as the "White Helmets," on Tuesday revealed that the number of fatalities in northwest Syria rose to 1,220 and injured to 2,600.

An earthquake rescue team dispatched by China's government arrived in Turkey's Adana Airport early on Wednesday, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Wednesday. The team, comprised of 82 members, brought 20 tonnes of medical and other rescue supplies and equipment, as well as four search-and-rescue dogs, according to CCTV.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent condolences to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that has killed over 7,800 people in Syria and Turkey, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday

Street no. 21 in Hatay, Turkey was, on Sunday, a happy home for dozens of families. By Monday, there was hardly anything left of it. Turkey's deadliest earthquake since 1999 left the street in ruins and its surviving residents homeless, desperately seeking missing relatives, and in shock as they processed what had happened.

India on Tuesday sent to Turkiye relief materials, a mobile hospital and specialised search and rescue teams in four C-17 Globemaster military transport aircraft to support the country's rescue efforts following the massive earthquake that has killed over 5,000 people in the region. India also sent six tonnes of relief materials, including life saving medicines and medical items, in a transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) to Syria which was also hit by the earthquake on Monday.

The Syrian state news agency SANA said at least 812 people were killed in the government-held provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama, Idlib and Tartous. At least 1,120 people were killed in Syria's opposition-held northwest with the toll expected to "rise dramatically", the White Helmets rescue team said.

Dozens of nations including the United States, China and the Gulf States have pledged to help, and search teams as well as relief supplies have begun to arrive by air.

Erdogan declared 10 Turkish provinces a disaster zone and imposed a state of emergency for three months that will permit the government to bypass parliament in enacting new laws and to limit or suspend rights and freedoms.

Residents in a northwest Syrian town discovered a crying infant whose mother appears to have given birth to her while buried underneath the rubble of a five-story apartment building leveled by this week's devastating earthquake, relatives and a doctor said Tuesday.

The 7.8-magnitude quake struck Monday as people slept, flattening thousands of structures, trapping an unknown number of people and potentially impacting millions. Whole rows of buildings collapsed, leaving some of the heaviest devastation near the quake's epicentre between the Turkish cities of Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras.

Rescuers in Turkey and Syria battled bitter cold Tuesday in a race against time to find survivors under buildings flattened by an earthquake that killed more than 7,800 people. Tremors that inflicted more suffering on a border area, already plagued by conflict, left people on the streets burning debris to try to stay warm as international aid began to arrive.

Even before Monday’s devastating earthquake, getting aid to all parts of war-battered Syria was fraught with daunting political and logistical challenges. Those hurdles have only multiplied in the wake of the disaster that has killed thousands in Turkey and Syria and brought down thousands of buildings.Damage to roads and other infrastructure in southern Turkey has stalled aid from reaching northern Syria, an area already devastated by 12 years of conflict.Meanwhile, the government of Bashar Assad in Damascus is still a pariah in much of the international community, sanctioned by the US and European countries, which are reluctant to route aid directly through the government. American and EU officials have made clear the quake won’t change that.

Countries around the world have mobilised rapidly to send aid and rescue workers after a massive earthquake killed more than 7,000 people in Turkey and Syria.

At least 1,932 people were killed and thousands injured in Syria following a number of deadly earthquakes and aftershocks in neighbouring Turkey, authorities and rescuers said on Tuesday. State news agency SANA said at least 812 people were killed and 1,449 people injured in the government-held provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama, Idlib and Tartous.