Death toll expected to increase in coming days; earthquake-related relief licence issued by US Treasury will last six months
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More than 21,000 people have been killed in Turkey and Syria and thousands more injured as efforts continue for a fifth day in freezing conditions on Friday to save those still trapped under rubble.
Officials and medics said on Thursday that 17,674 people had died in Turkey and 3,377 in Syria, bringing the confirmed total to 21,051.
Turkey said almost 3,000 buildings had collapsed in seven different provinces, including public hospitals. A famous mosque dating back to the 13th century partially collapsed in the province of Maltaya, where a 14-story building with 28 apartments that housed 92 people collapsed.
The World Bank will provide $1.78bn (£1.47bn) to Turkey. Meanwhile, the US will send $85m in aid for Turkey and Syria. Immediate assistance of $780m would be offered via contingent emergency response components from two existing projects in Turkey, the bank said. Countries including France and Germany have also sent money and support, as has Greece, which has had long-term disputes with Turkey.
Britain is committing additional funding of £3m ($3.65m) to support search and rescue operations and emergency relief in Syria, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.
At least 28,044 people have been evacuated from Kahramanmaraş, one of the southern Turkish provinces hardest hit by Monday’s earthquake, including 23,437 by air and 4,607 by road and rail, Turkey’s disaster management agency said.
Rescuers continued to pull people who have been trapped for days out of the rubble, including a young girl trapped for three days.
Turkey’s disaster management agency, AHAD, said it has recorded almost 650 aftershocks since the two earthquakes – 7.8 and 7.6 in magnitude – struck, making rescue efforts even more difficult and dangerous as emergency teams comb through severely weakened buildings.
A Reuters report shed light on how hundreds of thousands of people made homeless by the quake are being housed in banks of tents erected in stadiums and shattered city centres, while Mediterranean and Aegean beach resorts outside the quake zone are opening up hotel rooms for evacuees.
The World Health Organization head, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is on his way to Syria, where the WHO is part of the response. The UN will dispatch its aid chief, Martin Griffiths, to Gaziantep in Turkey and Aleppo and Damascus in Syria this weekend.
The WHO said up to 23 million people overall could be affected by the earthquake and promised long-term assistance. Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 77 national and 13 international emergency medical teams were deploying to the affected areas.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has spoken to Turkey’s finance minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, about how the US can provide assistance in Turkey and Syria. US state department spokesperson Ned Price said the US would continue to demand unhindered humanitarian access to Syria and urged Bashar al-Assad’s government to immediately allow aid through all border crossings.
