More than 11,000 confirmed fatalities in Turkey and Syria in deadliest earthquake in over a decade
More than 11,000 people have died after devastating earthquakes rocked Turkey and Syria.
The first 7.8 magnitude earthquake happened before dawn on Monday, when many people would have been sleeping.
Rescue teams from around the world have travelled to both countries to help search for survivors.
Baby born under rubble makes it out alive – follow live earthquake updates
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said fatalities could reach as high as 20,000 in the coming days.
Turkey’s disaster management agency said the country’s death toll passed 8,500 on Wednesday. The Syrian Health Ministry said the death toll in government-held areas has climbed past 1,200, while at least 1,400 people have died in the rebel-held northwest, according to volunteer first aiders known as the White Helmets.
A woman is rescued alive from the rubble following an earthquake in Hatay, Turkey
That brought the overall total to 11,000 since Monday’s earthquake and multiple strong aftershocks. Tens of thousands more are injured.
It is the deadliest since a 2011 earthquake in Japan triggered a tsunami, killing nearly 20,000 people.
As many as 23 million people could be affected in the quake-hit region, according to Adelheid Marschang, a senior emergencies officer with the World Health Organization, who called it a “crisis on top of multiple crises”.
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Drone shows scale of damage in Syria
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will travel to the town of Pazarcik, the epicentre of the earthquake, and to the worst-hit province of Hatay on Wednesday.
His visit comes amid calls for the government to send more help to the disaster zone.
Turkey has some 60,000 aid personnel in the earthquake-hit zone, but with the devastation so widespread many are still waiting for help.
Read more
Terrified and freezing, those left homeless from the earthquake travel for days to seek refuge
Heartbreak, horror and hope: Turkey and Syria after the earthquake in pictures
Gruesome, technical work: How an earthquake search and rescue mission is conducted
President Erdogan has said 13 million of the country’s 85 million people were affected, and he declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces.
More than 8,000 people have been pulled from the debris in Turkey, and some 380,000 have taken refuge in government shelters or hotels, authorities said.
Nearly two days after the magnitude 7.8 quake struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria, rescuers pulled a 3-year-old boy, Arif Kaan, from beneath the rubble of a collapsed apartment building in Kahramanmaras, a city not far from the epicenter.
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President Erdogan on the earthquake
People search for survivors at the intensive care unit of the Iskenderun collapsed state hospital in Hatay, Turkey
With the boy’s lower body trapped under slabs of concrete and twisted rebar, emergency crews lay a blanket over his torso to protect him from below-freezing temperatures as they carefully cut the debris away from him, mindful of the possibility of triggering another collapse.
The boy’s father, Ertugrul Kisi, who himself had been rescued earlier, sobbed as his son was pulled free and loaded into an ambulance.
“For now, the name of hope in Kahramanmaras is Arif Kaan,” a Turkish television reporter proclaimed as the dramatic rescue was broadcast to the country.
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Moment baby born in rubble rescued
A few hours later, rescuers pulled 10-year-old Betul Edis from the rubble of her home in the city of Adiyaman in Turkey.
Her grandfather kissed her and spoke softly to her as she was loaded on an ambulance as onlookers applauded.
Meanwhile, residents found a crying newborn still connected by the umbilical cord to her deceased mother in a northern Syrian town on Monday afternoon.
Aftermath of the the earthquake in Antakya near the Syrian border
The baby was the only member of her family to survive a building collapse in the small town of Jinderis, relatives told The Associated Press news agency.
But such stories were few, more than two days after Monday’s pre-dawn earthquake, which hit a huge area and brought down thousands of buildings, with frigid temperatures and ongoing aftershocks complicating rescue efforts.
Many survivors in Turkey have had to sleep in cars, outside, or in government shelters.
Aysan Kurt, 27, said: “We don’t have a tent, we don’t have a heating stove, we don’t have anything. Our children are in bad shape. We are all getting wet under the rain and our kids are out in the cold.
“We did not die from hunger or the earthquake, but we will die freezing from the cold.”
A woman reacts while embracing another person, near rubble following an earthquake in Hatay, Turkey
Search teams from more than two dozen countries have joined the Turkish emergency personnel, and aid pledges poured in.
But with devastation spread multiple several cities and towns – some isolated by Syria’s ongoing conflict – voices crying from within mounds of rubble fell silent, and despair grew from those still waiting for help.
Aid efforts in Syria have been hampered by the ongoing war and the isolation of the rebel-held region along the border in Syria.
The region is surrounded by Russian-backed government forces.
The United Nations said it was “exploring all avenues” to get supplies to the rebel-held northwest.
Syria itself is an international pariah under Western sanctions linked to the war. The region sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes.
The fast-moving developments on Trump’s Ukraine peace deal are dominating the G20 summit in South Africa, as European leaders scramble to put together a counter-proposal to the US-Russia 28-point plan and reinsert Ukraine into these discussions.
European countries are now working up proposals to put to President Trump ahead of his deadline of Thursday to agree a deal.
Ukraine is in a tight spot. It cannot reject Washington outright – it relies on US military support to continue this war – but neither can it accept the terms of a deal that is acutely favourable to Russia, requiring Ukraine to give up territory not even occupied by Moscow and reducing its army.
Overnight, the UK government has reiterated its position that any deal must deliver a “just and lasting peace”.
Ukraine war latest: Kyiv to discuss ending war in talks in Switzerland
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Keir Starmer calls for growth plan at G20
The prime minister, who spoke with E3 allies President Macron of France, Chancellor Merz of Germany and President Zelenskyy of Ukraine on the phone on Friday, is having more conversations today with key partners as they work out how to handle Trump and improve this deal for Ukraine.
One diplomatic source told me allies are being very careful not to criticise Trump or his approach for fear of exacerbating an already delicate situation.
Instead, the prime minister is directing his attacks at Russia.
Read more:
Trump’s 28-point Ukraine peace plan in full
Analysis: We could all pay if Europe doesn’t guarantee Ukraine’s security
Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends a plenary session on the first day of the G20 Leaders’ Summit. Pic: Reuters
“There is only one country around the G20 table that is not calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine and one country that is deploying a barrage of drones and missiles to destroy livelihoods and murder innocent civilians,” he said on Friday evening.
“Time and again, Russia pretends to be serious about peace, but its actions never live up to its words.”
Pic: AP
On the Trump plan, the prime minister said allies are meetin on Saturday “to discuss the current proposal on the table, and in support of Trump’s push for peace, look at how we can strengthen this plan for the next phase of negotiations”.
Strengthening the plan really means that they want to rebalance it towards Ukraine’s position and make it tougher on Russia.
“Ukraine has been ready to negotiate for months, while Russia has stalled and continued its murderous rampage. That is why we must all work together with both the US and Ukraine, to secure a just and lasting peace once and for all,” said the prime minister.
“We will continue to coordinate closely with Washington and Kyiv to achieve that. However, we cannot simply wait for peace.
“We must strain every sinew to secure it. We must cut off Putin’s finance flows by ending our reliance on Russian gas. It won’t be easy, but it’s the right thing to do.”
Pic: AP
Europeans hadn’t even seen this deal earlier in the week, in a sign that the US is cutting other allies out of negotiations – for now at least.
Starmer and other European leaders want to get to a position where Ukraine and Europe are at least at the table.
There is some discussion about whether European leaders such as Macron and Meloni might travel to Washington to speak to Trump early next week in order to persuade him of the European and Ukrainian perspective, as leaders did last August following the US-Russian summit in Alaska.
But Sky News understands there are no discussions about the PM travelling to Washington next week ahead of the budget.
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