Turkey-Syria earthquake highlights: Turkish president acknowledges 'shortcomings' in quake response. reports AFP

Turkey-Syria Earthquake highlights: The death toll in Turkey from earthquakes in its south rose to 6,234 by Wednesday morning, the Disaster Management Authority (AFAD) said.

Turkey-Syria Earthquake highlights: Frantic search is underway to find more survivors and help the injured as the death toll passed 11,000 from the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria. The search continues amid freezing weather and multiple aftershocks that have hampered the rescue efforts, despite international assistance from many countries including India. Southeast Turkey and northern Syria were struck by a major 7.8 earthquake on Monday. 

Follow all the updates here:

• Feb 08, 2023 11:55 PM IST

  Turkey-Syria earthquake toll tops 11,000

  Over 11,000 people have been killed so far due to powerful earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, reported news agency AP.

• Feb 08, 2023 10:52 PM IST

  'Put politics aside', facilitate northwest Syria aid access: UN

  A leading United Nations official on Wednesday called for the facilitation of aid access to rebel-held areas in Syria's northwest, warning that relief stocks will soon be depleted.

  Rebel-held areas near Turkey's border -- hard hit by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck on Monday -- cannot receive aid from government-held parts of Syria without Damascus's authorisation.

  "Put politics aside and let us do our humanitarian work," the UN's resident Syria coordinator El-Mostafa Benlamlih said in an interview with AFP, warning: "We can't afford to wait and negotiate. By the time we negotiate, it's done, it's finished."

• Feb 08, 2023 09:32 PM IST

  Syrian doctor says scale of injuries from earthquake is more devastating than from the war

  Doctor Mohamad Zitoun spent years treating casualties from the Syrian war but has never experienced anything like the number of injured and the scale of their injuries following Monday's devastating earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria.

• Feb 08, 2023 09:16 PM IST

  Erdogan condemns criticism of Turkey's quake response

  Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has acknowledged there were ‘shortcomings’ in response to the earthquake which has left 9,057 dead in his country, AFP reported.

• Feb 08, 2023 09:08 PM IST

  Erdogan acknowledges 'shortcomings' in quake response

  Turkish president acknowledges 'shortcomings' in quake response. reports AFP.

• Feb 08, 2023 08:32 PM IST

  Twitter down in Turkey as quake response criticism mounts

  Twitter became inaccessible on major Turkish mobile providers on Wednesday as online criticism mounted of the government's response to this week's deadly earthquake.

  AFP reporters were unable to access the social media network in Turkey. The netblocks.org social media monitor said Twitter was being restricted "on multiple internet providers in Turkey".

• Feb 08, 2023 06:40 PM IST

  Nearly 300,000 displaced by Syria quake - state media

  More than 298,000 people have been forced to leave their homes due to this week's deadly earthquake, Syrian state media reported, in an apparent reference to the parts of Syria under government control, not those held by other factions.

• Feb 08, 2023 06:25 PM IST

  One Indian missing, 10 stuck in remote parts of Turkey, says MEA

  The Ministry of External Affairs said that one Indian was missing, and ten others are currently stuck in remote parts of Turkey, after a deadly earthquake hit the country Monday, leading to the death of 8,754 people, news agency PTI reported.

• Feb 08, 2023 05:32 PM IST

  Many people died because of freezing cold, living nightmare in my country: Turkish national on quake aftermath

  Buildings fell like packs of cards and many people, rendered homeless by a devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake and several powerful aftershocks in Turkiye, died due to freezing temperatures, an anguished Kubra Halici said from Istanbul.

  An architectural history scholar, the Turkish national said, "Though we were far from the epicentre, we felt the shocks."

  PTI reached her through social media, and she said, "I and my family members are safe but my country is torn to pieces."

• Feb 08, 2023 04:32 PM IST

  Death toll surpasses 11000-mark

  Death toll rises above 11,200 in Turkey, Syria quake, AFP reported.

• Feb 08, 2023 04:18 PM IST

  India sends search and rescue teams to Türkiye and Syria under #OperationDost

  Under #OperationDost, India is sending search and rescue teams, a field hospital, materials, medicines and equipment to Türkiye and Syria.
  
  This is an ongoing operation and we would be posting updates. pic.twitter.com/7YnF0XXzMx

  — Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) February 8, 2023

• Feb 08, 2023 03:38 PM IST

  Earthquakes to disrupt Turkey's growth, stretch budget as Erdogan heads to elections

  Massive earthquakes in Turkey will add billions of dollars of spending to Ankara's budget and cut economic growth by up two percentage points this year, officials and economists said, as the government faces huge rebuilding ahead of tight elections.

• Feb 08, 2023 03:29 PM IST

  Pope calls for support for Syria-Turkey quake victims

  Pope Francis offered his prayers for the thousands of victims of the earthquake in Syria and Turkey on Wednesday and called on the international community to continue to support rescue and recovery efforts.

  "I am praying for them with emotion and I wanted to say that I am close to these people, to the families of the victims and everyone who is suffering from this devastating disaster," he said

• Feb 08, 2023 03:20 PM IST

  Turkey president Erdogan arrives to earthquake-hit region

  Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrives to the region where a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit.

• Feb 08, 2023 02:58 PM IST

  NDRF rushes third team to Turkiye; two on ground launch rescue operations

  A fresh team of 51 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel is being rushed to earthquake-hit Turkiye even as two teams present there have launched rescue operations at multiple collapsed structures, Director General of the force Atul Karwal was quoted by news agency PTI.

  The third team of the federal contingency force has already been airlifted from Varanasi to Delhi and the rescuers are expected to leave for the disaster-struck nation by tonight on board an IAF plane, he said.

• Feb 08, 2023 02:16 PM IST

  Erdogan wants elections in May despite earthquake fallout

  President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is working on the assumption general elections will be held in Turkey three months from now despite twin earthquakes devastating much of the southeast this week, Bloomberg reported.

  Erdogan, who is facing one of the toughest electoral races of his two decades in power, announced 90 days of emergency rule on Tuesday. It allows him to take swift security and financial measures in the areas stricken by the disaster, which has killed more than 6,000 people in Turkey. Parliament is expected to approve the move Wednesday.

• Feb 08, 2023 01:51 PM IST

  Turkey, Syria quake deadliest in 10 years

  The death toll from the earthquake in southern Turkey and northern Syria has climbed past 9,500, making it the deadliest seismic event in more than a decade.

  Turkish authorities updated the country’s death toll to 6,957 on Wednesday. In neighboring Syria, the government has reported 1,250 deaths from Monday’s pre-dawn earthquake in the areas it controls. The White Helmets, volunteer first responders in a rebel-held enclave, have reported 1,280 deaths.

  More than 30,000 people have been injured, and authorities expect the death toll to continue to climb as rescue workers race to pull survivors from the rubble in cities and towns across a wide area.

• Feb 08, 2023 01:36 PM IST

  Death toll rises above 9,500 in Turkey, Syria quake

  The death toll from a massive quake that struck Turkey and Syria rose to more than 9,500 on Wednesday, official data showed, with rescuers racing to reach trapped survivors for a third day.

• Feb 08, 2023 01:33 PM IST

  Japan's aid to Turkey, Syria 

  Japan has sent 73 rescue personnel to Turkey with equipment such as life detectors, drills, portable generators, medical kits and food.

• Feb 08, 2023 12:27 PM IST

  Earthquake death toll in Turkey rises to 6,234 -Disaster Management Authority

  The death toll in Turkey from earthquakes in its south rose to 6,234 by Wednesday morning, the Disaster Management Authority (AFAD) said.

  The number of those injured rose to 37,011, the agency said, adding that more than 79,000 personnel were engaged in search and rescue operations.

• Feb 08, 2023 12:07 PM IST

  Earthquake death toll in Syria surpasses 2,500

  The death toll in Syria from a devastating earthquake has surpassed 2,500, according to Syrian state media and a rescue service operating in the insurgent-held northwest.

  The White Helmets rescue team said on Twitter the casualty toll in insurgent-held areas has risen to more than 1,280 deaths and more than 2,600 injured.

• Feb 08, 2023 11:43 AM IST

  Taliban administration to send earthquake aid to Turkey, Syria

  Afghanistan's Taliban administration will send around $165,000 in aid to Turkey and Syria to help the response to a devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck this week, according to a foreign ministry statement.

• Feb 08, 2023 11:16 AM IST

  Magnitude 4.3 earthquake rocks Turkey's Nurdagi

  Another earthquake of magnitude 4.3 jolted Nurdagi district, a city in Gaziantep Province of Turkey on Wednesday.

  The quake was reported around 8:31 am at a depth of 10 km, 15 km south of Nurdagi at the location, 37.032°N 36.721°E, reported by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

• Feb 08, 2023 11:00 AM IST

  World Health Organisation on Turkey-Syria earthquake

  The World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that time is running out for the thousands injured and those still feared trapped.

• Feb 08, 2023 09:51 AM IST

  China's support for Turkey-Syria

  China has already committed to give a first tranche of 40 million yuan ($5.9 million) in emergency aid to Turkey.

• Feb 08, 2023 09:34 AM IST

  Situation in Syria after earthquake

  Search teams from nearly 30 countries and aid pledges poured in. But with the damage spread across several cities and towns — some isolated by Syria's ongoing conflict — voices crying for help from within mounds of rubble fell silent.

• Feb 08, 2023 09:20 AM IST

  Emergency in Turkey

  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a state of emergency for three months in 10 southern provinces, which were hit by massive earthquakes, Anadolu Agency reported.

• Feb 08, 2023 09:04 AM IST

  Why was earthquake in Turkey, Syria so devastating?

  The reason why Turkey’s earthquake proved to be so damaging is because the east Anatolian Fault is a strike-slip fault where solid rock plates are pushing up against each other across a vertical fault line beneath the earth’s surface, building stress until one finally slips in a horizontal motion thus resulting in earthquake which is a sudden movement of Earth’s crust at a fault line.

• Feb 08, 2023 08:41 AM IST

  Can you predict earthquakes?

  United States Geological Survey - the US government’s body monitoring seismic activity said earthquakes cannot be predicted. “USGS scientists can only calculate the probability that a significant earthquake will occur (shown on our hazard mapping) in a specific area within a certain number of years," it said.

• Feb 08, 2023 08:32 AM IST

  How do earthquakes occur?

  The NASA explained the seismic activity that the “earth’s crust is fractured into tectonic plates that are constantly shifting as they drift around on the viscous, or slowly flowing, mantle layer below the solid, top crust…This non-stop movement causes stress on Earth’s crust….which when gets too large, leads to cracks called faults. When tectonic plates move, it also causes movements at the faults. An earthquake is the sudden movement of Earth’s crust at a fault line.”

• Feb 08, 2023 08:05 AM IST

  Mother dies giving birth under rubble in quake-hit Syrian town; baby survives

  In war-torn Syrian town, residents digging through rubble discovered a crying infant whose mother appears to have given birth to her while remaining trapped from this week’s devastating earthquake.

  The newborn girl’s umbilical cord was still connected to her mother, Afraa Abu Hadiya, who was dead, they said. The baby was the only member of her family to survive from the building collapse, AP reported.

• Feb 08, 2023 07:43 AM IST

  International aid to quake-hit Syria mired in politics due to sanctions

  Apart from logistical challenges, quake-hit Syria is facing daunting political problems too as international community remains reluctant to provide aid to the war-torn country.

  A key issue complicating the dispersal of aid is “the war and the way the aid response is split between rebel areas and Damascus in Syria,” news agency AP reported quoting Aron Lund, a fellow with New York-based think tank Century International who researches Syria.

• Feb 08, 2023 07:32 AM IST

  Relief team dispatched by China arrives in Turkey, reports Reuters

  The relief and rescue team dispatched by the Chinese government in the earthquake-hit Turkey, where nearly 5,500 people have died so far, arrived on Wednesday, reported Reuters.

• Feb 08, 2023 07:27 AM IST

  Video of 7-yr-old girl shielding sibling under rubble goes viral

  As the death toll crossed 7,700 and authorities scramble to pull out more survivors amid a frantic rescue operation in the earthquake-hit Turkey, Syria, a video of a seven-year-old girl shielding her sibling under the rubble has gone viral.

• Feb 08, 2023 07:00 AM IST

  Turkey declares 3-month state of emergency in 10 provinces

  The Turkish president declared a three-month state of emergency in 10 provinces to cope with the aftermath of the twin earthquakes.

  Emergency rule, which needs to be approved by parliament, would enable the government to take extraordinary security and financial measures in the stricken areas.

• Feb 08, 2023 06:50 AM IST

  Egypt’s Sisi offers condolences, aid to Turkey's Erdogan

  Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi offered humanitarian aid to Turkey over the quakes, according to a statement. Turkey and Egypt recently began to normalize their ties following years of a strained relationship.

• Feb 08, 2023 06:46 AM IST

  Anthony Blinken on US aid to Syria

  "In Syria itself we have US-funded humanitarian partners that are coordinating lifesaving assistance," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, adding, “We're committed to providing that assistance to help people in Syria recover from this disaster, just as we have been their leading humanitarian donor since the start of the war in Syria itself.”

  “I want to emphasize here that these funds, of course, go to the Syrian people -- not to the regime. That won't change,” Blinken said.

• Feb 08, 2023 06:39 AM IST

  What you need to know about the rescue ops in Turkey and Syria

  Search teams from nearly 30 countries and aid pledges poured in. But with the damage spread across several cities and towns — some isolated by Syria's ongoing conflict — voices crying for help from within mounds of rubble fell silent.

• Feb 08, 2023 06:22 AM IST

  What US said on aid to Syria

  The United States said it was working with partners to provide earthquake relief in Syria but would stand firm against working with the Damascus government.

  The United States also said it expected to send further assistance to Turkey after sending two rescue teams to the NATO ally, which suffered heavily as well in Sunday's earthquake.

• Feb 08, 2023 06:02 AM IST

  How tough is it for aid to reach Syria?

  Even before Monday’s devastating earthquake, getting aid to all parts of war-battered Syria was fraught with daunting political and logistical challenges.

  Those hurdles have only multiplied in the wake of the disaster that has killed thousands in Turkey and Syria and brought down thousands of buildings.

• Feb 08, 2023 05:55 AM IST

  North Korea's Kim Jong Un sends condolences to Syria

  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent condolences to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over the magnitude 7.8 earthquake, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing the North's state media. 

• Feb 08, 2023 05:48 AM IST

  Israel's aid to Turkey and Syria following devastating earthquake

  The Israeli army says its delegation of medics and engineers will depart for Turkey early Wednesday to set up a field hospital to treat victims of the powerful earthquake.

  The team will include some 230 people, including military doctors, nurses and paramedics.

  The Israeli army said its field hospital will provide assistance using “specialized advanced technology,” without elaborating.

• Feb 08, 2023 05:28 AM IST

  What United Nations said on Turkey-Syria earthquake

  The United Nations says it's “exploring all avenues” to get supplies to rebel-held northwestern Syria, and it released $25 million from its emergency fund to help kick-start the humanitarian response in Turkey and Syria.