Thousands killed in major earthquakes in Turkey and Syria – as it happened

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Here is some more footage from the rescue effort:

1:09

The death toll in Turkey has climbed to 2,921 from 2,379 a few hours ago, Turkey’s Andalou agency reports, citing the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority.

The latest toll from Syria remains 1,444, bringing the number of confirmed deaths to 4,365.

It has now been just over 24 hours since the first earthquake hit.

Here is how some of the UK’s newspapers have framed the news:

Tens of thousands of people are now homeless in Turkey and Syria, and have spent the night in freezing temperatures. In the Turkish city of Gaziantep, a provincial capital about 33 kilometers (20 miles) from the epicentre, people took refuge in shopping malls, stadiums, mosques and community centres, the Associated Press reports.

Turkey’s Andalou Agency reports that a woman has been rescued after 22 hours stuck under the rubble:

Syria’s envoy to the UN said Monday that aid sent after the earthquake will reach all its population, even though Damascus does not control all of its territory.

Asked if aid donated to Syria – some areas are held by rebels – would reach all of the population, Syria’s UN envoy Bassam Sabbagh said it would.

“We assure the UN that we are ready to help and to coordinate to provide assistance to all Syrians in all territory of Syria,” Sabbagh said after meeting with UN secretary general António Guterres to convey a Syrian government request for aid.

“We are ready to help also those who wanted to provide the help in all Syria,” he stressed.

Today humanitarian aid in rebel-held areas usually arrives through Turkey, thanks to a cross-border mechanism created in 2014 by a UN security council resolution.

But this mechanism is contested by Damascus and its ally Moscow, who call the system a violation of Syrian sovereignty.

Under pressure from Russia and China, the number of crossing points has been reduced over time from four to one.

Asked about the possible opening of new crossing points to deal with the aftermath of the earthquake, the Syrian ambassador seemed to reject the idea on Monday.

“I said we are ready to work with all who wanted to provide Syrians from inside Syria,” he said in English.

“So access from inside Syria are there. So if anyone would like to help Syria, they can coordinate with the government and we will be ready to do so.”

Prisoners mutinied in a northwestern Syria prison Monday after the earthquake, with at least 20 escaping the jail holding mostly Islamic State group members, a source at the facility told AFP.

The military police prison in the town of Rajo near the Turkish border holds about 2,000 inmates, with about 1,300 of them suspected to be IS fighters, said the source.

The prison also holds fighters from Kurdish-led forces.

“After the earthquake struck, Rajo was affected and inmates started to mutiny and took control of parts of the prison,” said the official at Rajo jail, which is controlled by pro-Turkish factions.

“About 20 prisoners fled … who are believed to be IS militants.”

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol has issued an order to send rescue workers and emergency medical items to Turkey, Yoon’s office said on Tuesday.

“Yoon ordered related government agencies … to come up with additional support measures in case needed by Turkey,” the presidential office said in a statement.

This young girl has lost her entire family, according to Middle East Institute Director Charles Lister:

In this video from Turkey, a man weeps as he begs for help, “How can I find my mother and father here, please send a team, I need a crane,” he says.

In this heartbreaking video taken in the Syrian border town of Jenderes, a father thanks God over and over as he cradles his child, before he says, “it’s broken our backs”.

Later, an older man says his family are still under the rubble but there’s no one to help them. They can hear the sounds, but there’s nothing or no one to get them out. Then he appeals for the world to help. Thanks to my colleague Antoun Issa for his help with the translation:

My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest from Turkey and Syria as it happens.

If you have questions, news you think we may have missed, or are in Turkey or Syria and would like to get in touch, you can find me on Twitter here @helenrsullivan.

It is currently 3.30 am in Gaziantep, Turkey. Here is where things stand at the moment.

• International rescue missions were rushing to Turkey and Syria on Monday after one of the most powerful earthquakes to hit the region in at least a century left more than 3,800 people dead, thousands injured and an unknown number trapped in the rubble. The early-morning quake and dozens of aftershocks wiped out entire apartment blocks in Turkey and heaped more destruction on Syrian communities already devastated by over a decade of war.

• At least 2,379, have been confirmed dead in Turkey, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said, and 1,444 in Syria, according to figures from the Damascus Government and rescue workers. Thousands more are injured, and the death toll is expected to rise.

• The first quake struck as people slept, and measured magnitude 7.8, one of the most powerful quakes in the region in at least a century. It was felt as far away as Cyprus and Cairo. The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said preliminary data showed the second large quake measured 7.7 magnitude, and was 67km (42 miles) north-east of Kahramanmaraş, Turkey, at a depth of 2km.

• In 1999, when a tremor of similar magnitude hit the heavily populated eastern Marmara Sea region near Istanbul, it killed more than 17,000.

• The death toll could rise to over 20,000, the World Health Organization’s senior emergency officer for Europe, Catherine Smallwood, said. “There’s continued potential of further collapses to happen so we do often see in the order of eight fold increases on the initial numbers,” she told AFP, speaking when the estimated toll stood at 2,600. “We always see the same thing with earthquakes, unfortunately, which is that the initial reports of the numbers of people who have died or who have been injured will increase quite significantly in the week that follows,” Smallwood added.

• US President Joe Biden spoke with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday to offer condolences and reaffirm Washington’s readiness to assist in rescue efforts, the White House said. Biden “noted that US teams are deploying quickly to support Turkish search and rescue efforts and coordinate other assistance that may be required by people affected by the earthquakes, including health services or basic relief items,” the White House said in a statement.

• More than 10 search and rescue teams from the European Union have been mobilised to help with the recovery, a spokesperson for the European Commission said. The US, UK, Canada, Israel, Russia and China are among other nations to have offered assistance and calls have emerged for the international community to relax some of the political restrictions on aid entering north-west Syria, the country’s last rebel-held enclave and one of the areas worst hit by the earthquake.

• There have been more than a 100 smaller aftershocks registered by seismologists.

• Turkey’s armed forces have set up an air corridor to enable search and rescue teams to reach the zone affected.

• Turkey’s Akkuyu nuclear power plant, which is under construction, was not damaged by the earthquake, an official from the Russian company building the plant said.

• The Swedish presidency of the European Union has activated the integrated political crisis response (IPCR) to coordinate EU support measures in response to the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, the EU Council said in a statement. The IPCR arrangements strengthen the EU’s ability to take rapid decisions when facing major cross-sectoral crises requiring a response at the EU level.

• The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has called for increased funding for humanitarian aid in Syria, saying that many people in the north-west of the country have already been displaced up to 20 times, and that medical care in the region was “strained beyond capacity, even before this tragedy”.

• The partial destruction of a Roman-era castle in the Turkish city of Gaziantep has led to fears that two earthquakes that struck on Monday may have damaged other priceless monuments in Turkey and Syria, areas rich in cultural heritage.

A top UN humanitarian official said damage to roads, fuel shortages and harsh winter weather in Syria were hampering the agency’s response to an earthquake on Monday that killed more than 1,444 in the country and left millions in need of aid, Timour Azhari reports for Reuters.

“The infrastructure is damaged, the roads that we used to use for humanitarian work are damaged, we have to be creative in how to get to the people … but we are working hard,” UN resident coordinator El-Mostafa Benlamlih told Reuters in an interview via video link from Damascus.

Even before the magnitude 7.8 quake struck in the early hours of Monday morning, the UN estimated that more than 4 million people in northwest Syria, many displaced by the 12-year conflict and living in camps, depended on cross-border aid.

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While Syrian frontlines have been largely frozen for years, a deepening economic crisis has exacted a heavy toll across the fractured nation, leading to fuel shortages, increased power cuts and growing deprivation.

The United Nations says the number of people in need of humanitarian support is greater than at any point since the war began, with 70% of the population requiring aid.

And that was before the quake struck. Now, “they are the same people, suffering more,” Benlamlih said.

“Whatever we have, we are using it for now. And hopefully we will be able to get that replenished for the normal needs,” Benlamlih said.

“Whatever we have, we are using it for now. And hopefully we will be able to get that replenished for the normal needs,” Benlamlih said.

“When we are getting less than 50% of funding, it’s not that we managed.. The number of the people in need keep increasing and the crisis keeps deepening.”