LIVE UPDATES: Syria-Turkey earthquake toll tops 9,500

World

Published: 2023-02-08 10:28

Last Updated: 2024-03-28 03:18


LIVE UPDATES: Syria-Turkey earthquake toll tops 9,500
LIVE UPDATES: Syria-Turkey earthquake toll tops 9,500

Heartrending scenes of a newborn plucked alive from the rubble and a broken father clutching his dead daughter's hand have laid bare the human cost of violent earthquakes in Syria and Turkey that by Wednesday had claimed 11,236 lives.

For two days and nights since the 7.8 magnitude quake, an impromptu army of rescuers have worked in freezing temperatures to find those still entombed among ruins that pockmark several cities on either side of the border.

Up to 23 million people could be affected by the massive earthquake that has killed thousands in Turkey and Syria, the WHO warned on Tuesday, promising long-term assistance.

"Event overview maps show that potentially 23 million people are exposed, including around five million vulnerable populations," the World Health Organization's senior emergencies officer Adelheid Marschang said.

"Civilian infrastructure and potentially health infrastructure have been damaged across the affected region, mainly in Turkey and northwest Syria," she said.

The WHO "considers that the main unmet needs may be in Syria in the immediate and mid-term," Marschang told the WHO's executive committee in Geneva.

She spoke as rescuers in Turkey and Syria braved freezing cold, aftershocks and collapsing buildings, as they dug for survivors buried by a string of earthquakes.