Rescuers in a race against time

Yesterday's earthquake, which claimed more than 5000 lives in Turkey and northwestern Syria, brought new suffering to the region, which has endured enormous suffering in the past ten years. On the Syrian side, the affected area is divided between government-controlled territory and the last opposition enclave. In Turkey, where entire blocks of flats were demolished, over 1600 people died in ten provinces, and the authorities announced that they expect the number of victims to rise.

As night fell, rescuers searched the rubble and pulled out bodies, and desperate families waited for news of their loved ones.

"My grandson is one and a half years old. Please help them. Please. We do not hear from them and have had no news of them since this morning. Please, they were on the 12th floor," cried Imran Bahur next to a destroyed building in the Turkish city of Adana. Her daughter and family were not found last night.

"I have no more strength," said one survivor from the ruins in Adana yesterday, while rescuers were trying to reach him.

A resident of that city, Muhamet Fetih Javuz, a journalism student, told the Associated Press agency that three buildings were demolished near his house.

In the Syrian rebel-held town of Jandaris in Aleppo province, a pile of concrete and metal bars has replaced the high-rise building that once stood there.

"There were 12 families there. None of them came out. No one," a young man with bandages on his hands and head told Reuters.

Residents jolted out of sleep by the 7,8-magnitude earthquake before dawn rushed outside in the rain and snow, while those who remained trapped cried for help. Large aftershocks, including one nearly as strong as the original earthquake, continued to shake the region.

The second quake was strong enough to topple more buildings and, like the first, was felt across the region, endangering rescuers trying to pull victims from the rubble.

"It was like an apocalypse," said Abdul Salam al Mahmud, a Syrian from the northern city of Atareb. "It's terribly cold, it's raining and people need to be rescued".

"In Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey, a woman standing next to the ruins of the seven-story building where she lived said, "We were shaking as if we were in a cradle. There were nine of us at home. My two sons are still in the ruins, I'm waiting for them," she said with a broken arm and facial injuries.

Yesterday's earthquake has already killed the most people in Turkey since 1999, when a quake of similar magnitude devastated the densely populated eastern Marmara region near Istanbul, killing more than 17.000 people.

Temperatures in some areas dropped to freezing overnight, worsening conditions for people trapped under the rubble and those left homeless. Rain continued to fall yesterday after snow storms swept the country over the weekend.

In the Turkish city of Gaziantep, a provincial capital located about 33 kilometers from the epicenter of the earthquake, citizens took shelter in shopping malls, stadiums and municipal centers. Mosques across the region opened their doors offering refuge, the AP agency reported.

In Turkey, people trying to leave the affected regions have caused traffic jams, further hampering the efforts of rescue teams to reach the injured.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who is facing uncertain elections in May, said that this is a historical disaster, but he pointed out that the authorities are doing everything in their power.

"Everyone is putting their heart and soul into their efforts, although the winter, cold weather and subsequent earthquakes have made things difficult," he said, adding that the authorities do not know how much the number of dead and injured will increase.

Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said that this is a disaster that happens "once in a hundred years".

Turkish state broadcaster TRT showed a building collapsing in the southern province of Adana after a second earthquake. Reuters points out that it was not immediately clear whether the building had been previously evacuated.

In Turkey, the number of dead last night was 3400 in more than ten provinces, announced the Minister of Health, Fahretin Koca.

At least 1600 people were killed in Syria last night, according to the government in Damascus and rescue workers in the rebel-held northwestern region.

About four million people displaced from other parts of the country because of the war live in that region. Many of them live in buildings that have already been damaged in the bombing. The capacities of health institutions were quickly filled yesterday as the injured arrived.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said the earthquake will only add to the suffering of millions of Syrians who are already suffering a humanitarian crisis due to the civil war.

In the Turkish city of Diyarbakir, Reuters reporters saw dozens of rescuers searching through the rubble for survivors. From time to time they raised their hand asking everyone to be quiet, trying to hear the sounds of life.

Men took out a girl wrapped in blankets from a collapsed building in that city. In Izmir, drone footage shows rescuers standing on top of a huge pile of rubble trying to lift concrete slabs.

Raed Fares of the Syrian White Helmets, a rescue service in rebel-held territory known for pulling people from the rubble of buildings destroyed by airstrikes, said they were "in a race against time to save the lives of those under the rubble".

The number of victims in northwestern Syria is expected to increase, said a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Efforts in northwestern Syria. "This is the latest in a series of layers of suffering," said spokesman Madevi Sun-Suon.

In the Syrian city of Hama, which is under government control, a Reuters reporter saw the lifeless body of a child being pulled from the rubble.

President Bashar al-Assad held an emergency cabinet meeting to review the damage and next steps, his office said.

In the Turkish city of Malatya, a rescuer crawled into the rubble of a building, trying to identify a trapped survivor, a video released by the Turkish Emergency Situations Agency showed.

"What colors are you wearing? Do you wear pink? Please take care for now. I don't see anything else," the rescuer can be heard on the video.

Thousands of buildings collapsed in an area stretching from the Syrian cities of Aleppo and Hama to Turkey's Diyarbakir, more than 330 kilometers to the northwest.

Authorities said 3 buildings, including hospitals, were destroyed in Turkey alone. With weak internet connections and damaged roads in some of the hardest-hit cities in southern Turkey, it is difficult to determine the true extent of damage and suffering.

Such extensive damage usually leads to a huge death toll, but the cold temperatures will only make the situation worse, shortening the time frame for rescuers to rescue survivors, Stephen Godby, a natural disaster expert at Nottingham Trent University, told the AP. He added that the civil war will further complicate rescue efforts.

The world is sending aid, mostly to Turkey

Aid - from rescue teams to medical supplies and money - has been offered by dozens of countries, as well as the European Union and NATO. Most of the aid, as the AP agency writes, was offered to Turkey, and Russia and Israel promised help to the Syrian government, although it is not clear whether part of that aid will go to the devastated rebel region in the northwest of the country.

Erdogan said yesterday that 45 countries have offered to help in the rescue efforts. The Turkish government has requested assistance through the EU, NATO and UN civil protection mechanisms.

US President Joe Biden announced on Twitter that he was "deeply saddened" by the loss of life and destruction in Syria and Turkey, adding: "I have directed my team to continue to closely monitor the situation in coordination with Turkey and provide all necessary assistance."

A British team of 76 search and rescue specialists with equipment and sniffer dogs arrived in Turkey last night, and the rescue team will be sent by the United Arab Emirates, among others, as well as equipment for a field hospital.

Montenegro will also send a search and rescue team to Turkey, the Public Relations Service of the Government of Montenegro announced yesterday.

Pope Francis sent a telegram in which he expressed his "deep condolences" and the Italian Roman Catholic Church decided to donate half a million euros for help.

European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič said the EU Emergency Response Coordination Center was in contact with Turkish authorities 24 hours a day and had activated its Copernicus emergency satellite mapping service to help rescuers.

The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations announced that two IL-76 aircraft with 100 rescuers are ready to fly to Turkey if necessary.

Expect earthquakes in the coming months

The earthquake occurred at a depth of 18 kilometers with an epicenter in the south of Turkey, near the border with Syria, according to the US Geological Survey.

Many aftershocks hit the area after the first earthquake. In the first 11 hours, the region felt 13 significant aftershocks of at least magnitude five, said geologist Alex Hatem.

Scientists are looking into whether the 7,5-magnitude earthquake that occurred nine hours after the main earthquake was an aftershock, and Hatem thinks it is. "Certainly more earthquakes due to land subsidence are expected, bearing in mind the scale of the main earthquake," said Hatem. "We expect aftershocks in the coming days, weeks and months."

Scientists claim that the earthquake is the result of strike-slip, in which two tectonic plates slide past each other horizontally, instead of moving up and down.

In this case, one plate moved to the west and the other to the east - touching each other, which caused the earthquake, Hatem said.