Families in southern Turkey and Syria spent a second night in the freezing cold on Wednesday (February 8) as overwhelmed rescuers raced to pull people from the rubble two days after the death toll from a massive earthquake rose to more than 11,000 people, Reuters reports.
Many in the disaster zone had slept their cars or in the streets under blankets, fearful of going back into buildings shaken by the 7.8 magnitude tremor - already Turkey's deadliest since 1999 - that hit in the early hours of Monday.
Rescuers there and in neighbouring Syria warned that the death toll would keep rising as some survivors said help had yet to arrive.
The death toll rose above 8,500 in Turkey. In Syria, already devastated by 11 years of war, the confirmed toll climbed to more than 2,500 overnight, according to the Syrian government and a rescue service operating in the rebel-held northwest.
Reuters journalists in Kahramanmaras saw around 50 bodies draped in blankets on the floor of a sports hall. Family members searched for relatives among the dead.
Kneeling on the auditorium floor, a woman wailed with grief and embraced a body wrapped in a blanket
In Hatay province, where dozens more bodies lay outside in rows between Red Crescent tents, people opened body bags hoping to identify loved ones.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces. But residents in several damaged Turkish cities have voiced anger and despair at what they said was a slow and inadequate response by the authorities.
Erdogan, facing a close-fought election in May, visited Kahramanmaras and met with survivors on Wednesday.
The initial quake, followed hours later by a second one almost as powerful, struck just after 4 a.m. on Monday, giving the sleeping population little chance to react.
It toppled thousands of buildings including hospitals, schools and apartment blocks, injured tens of thousands, and left countless people homeless in Turkey and northern Syria.
Turkish authorities say some 13.5 million people were affected in an area spanning roughly 450 km (280 miles) from Adana in the west to Diyarbakir in the east - broader than the distance between Boston and Philadelphia, or Amsterdam and Paris.
In Syria, it killed people as far south as Hama, some 100 km from the epicentre.
Turkey's disaster management agency said the number of injured was above 38,000.
Rescue workers have struggled to reach some of the worst-hit areas, held back by destroyed roads, poor weather and a lack of resources and heavy equipment. Some areas are without fuel and electricity.
