Turkey-Syria earthquake death toll surpasses 19,000, rescue efforts continue

A heart-warming picture of an Indian Army woman personnel receiving a kiss on the cheek from a Turkish woman while on rescue and relief work in the earthquake-stricken nation is making waves on social media.

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Death toll in Turkey-Syria earthquake has risen over 19,300 surpassing the count of fatalities caused in by Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster.

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The earthquake, which was centred in Turkey's southeastern province of Kahramanmaras, was a result of the grinding of the tectonic plates that the country sits on.

According to Italian seismologist Professor Carlo Doglioni, the violent earthquake may have moved Turkey 5 to 6 metres Southwest.

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Fitch Ratings has warned that the economic losses from the devastating earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria could reach over $4 billion. The earthquake, which had a magnitude of 7.8, has resulted in over 17,500 fatalities and the number is expected to increase as rescue efforts continue.

"The economic losses are difficult to predict as the situation remains fluid, but they could exceed $2 billion and reach $4 billion or more," Fitch Ratings stated.

Despite the extensive damage, the insured losses are expected to be much lower, at around $1 billion, due to the low level of insurance coverage in the affected regions.

A video of a rescue worker offering a child water with a bottle cap has gone viral on social media, symbolising the humanitarian crisis that has emerged in the aftermath of the quake.

The rescue worker can be seen providing the little boy with water from a bottle cap as he is being pulled from the rubble.

"Emergency response must not be politicised," said Geir Pedersen, the UN Special Envoy for Syria, as he emphasised the importance of avoiding political interference in aid delivery to earthquake victims in the country.

 He spoke to reporters in Geneva and called for Washington and Brussels to ensure there were "no impediments" in the delivery of aid to both government-controlled and rebel-held areas in Syria.

The situation in Syria is dire, with over 3,162 people killed in the earthquake, and the country already ravaged by a decade of civil war.

 There have been calls for the temporary lifting of economic sanctions to facilitate the delivery of aid to those in need.

Mother child were saved after spending 55 hours under the rubble in Turkey's Gaziantep, a video shared by Twitter user showed.

From thousands of building collapsing to roads split open due to the series of massive tremors. Here is a video shared by a Twitter user showing the aftermath of the earthquake in Turkey. 

More than 298,000 people have been made homeless and 180 shelters for the displaced had been opened, Syrian state media reported, apparently referring to areas under government control, and not held by opposition factions.

Many people are being pulled alive from the debris since the disaster took place in Turkey and Syria, however, the question arises that how long people can survive in the rubble of an earthquake. Experts predicted the possibility of survival for up to a week or more, depending on their injuries and weather conditions.

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The death toll from a huge earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria climbed to more than 16,000 on Thursday, as rescuers raced to reach survivors stuck under rubble in freezing weather.

Officials and medics said 12,873 people had died in Turkey and 3,162 in Syria from Monday's 7.8-magnitude tremor, bringing the confirmed total to 16,035.

Twitter was blocked for at least 12 hours on major Turkish mobile providers in an outage that ended early Thursday, following a flurry of online criticism of the government's response to this week's deadly earthquake.

By about 5 am (0200 GMT), the social media site was accessible again.

Online monitor netblocks.org on Wednesday showed Twitter becoming throttled and then completely blocked across all major cell phone providers in the country. The site still worked using VPN services that disguise a user's location.

The country is still stricken after Monday's 7.8-magnitude quake, which killed at least 15,000 people there and in neighbouring Syria.

The death toll in Turkey from earthquakes in its southeast rose to 12,391 by Thursday morning, the Disaster Management Authority (AFAD) said according to Cumhuriyet news website.

The number of those injured rose to 62,914, the AFAD said in a statement, while search and rescue operations continued, Cumhuriyet reported. (Reuters)

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and Vice President William Lai will each donate a month's salary for Turkish earthquake relief efforts, the presidential office said on Thursday, adding to existing aid already sent by the island.

Tsai and Lai, who is widely expected to stand for the presidency in elections due next year, "hope to do their part to help Turkey rebuild its homeland as soon as possible", the presidential office said in a statement.

For years, the people of Aleppo bore the brunt of bombardment and fighting when their city, once Syria’s largest and most cosmopolitan, was among the civil war’s fiercest battle zones. Even that didn’t prepare them for the new devastation and terror wreaked by this week’s earthquake.

The natural disaster piled on many human-made ones, multiplying the suffering in Aleppo and Syria more broadly.

Fighting largely halted in Aleppo in 2016, but only a small number of the numerous damaged and destroyed buildings had been rebuilt. The population has also more recently struggled with Syria's economic downslide, which has sent food prices soaring and residents thrown into poverty.

Some of the heaviest devastation occurred near the quake's epicentre between Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep, where entire city blocks lay in ruins. 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. Social media posts showed a 2,200-year-old hilltop castle built by Roman armies in Gaziantep lying in ruins, its walls partially turned to rubble.

In Syria, the health ministry reported damage across the provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Tartus, where Russia is leasing a naval facility. The UN's cultural body UNESCO warned that two sites on its World Heritage List, the old city of Syria's Aleppo and the fortress in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, had sustained damage and that several others may also have been hit.

It noted that the quake occurred in one of the longest continuously inhabited areas on the planet within the so-called Fertile Crescent, which has witnessed the emergence of different civilisations from the Hittites to the Ottomans. Even before the tragedy, buildings in Aleppo often toppled due to poor infrastructure and many are dilapidated after more than a decade of war

When and where: The first 7.8 magnitude quake occurred at 04:17 am (0117 GMT) at a depth of about 18 kilometres (11 miles) near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, which is home to around two million people, the US Geological Survey said. It was followed by a slightly smaller 7.5 magnitude tremor and many aftershocks. The quakes devastated entire sections of major cities in Turkey and war-ravaged Syria. The region also hosts millions of people who have fled the civil war in Syria and other conflicts.

Casualties: More than 15,000 people have been killed and thousands more injured as efforts continue for a third day in freezing conditions to save those still trapped under rubble.

Officials and medics said 12,391 people had died in Turkey and 2,992 in Syria, bringing the total to 15,383.

The President at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Professor Carlo Doglioni has claimed that massive earthquake which striked Turkey moved the country by 5-6 meters, as reported by Italy 24.

Days passed, but search and rescue operation still continues to look for victims in debris after five back-to-back devastating earthquakes killed more than 15,000 people in Turkey and Syria. Many countries including Japan, the US, Britain, India, Germany, and others have sent their search teams to quake-hit countries for help and assistance. Experts predicted the possibility of survival for up to a week or more, depending on their injuries and weather conditions. Read more here