Deaths after earthquake in Turkey and Syria exceed 11,000

The death toll from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit southeast Turkey and northern Syria rose to 11,200 on Wednesday (8), two days after what is already considered one of the worst natural disasters of the century.

Of the total deaths, 8,574 occurred in Turkish territory. In Syria, ravaged by more than a decade of civil war, the number surpassed 2,500 at dawn, according to reports by the authorities in Damascus and rescue teams in rebel zones.

In Turkey, complaints are accumulating that the government has not given adequate assistance to the population in the affected areas, even after the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, declared a state of emergency in ten provinces the day before.

“Where are the tents, the food trucks?” asked Melek, 64, in Antakya, in the south of the country, adding that he had not seen any emergency personnel around the city. “We haven’t seen any food distributions here, unlike in previous local disasters. We survived the earthquake, but we’re going to die of hunger or cold here.”

On a visit to the province of Kahramanmaras, close to the epicenter of the earthquake, this Wednesday, Erdogan admitted that there were problems in the initial response to the tremor, related in particular to the blockade of roads and airports. But he said operations had returned to normal — and the public should ignore “provocateurs” and stick to official government communication.

As the scope of the disaster becomes evident, hopelessness grips the families, who spent another freezing morning trying to free their relatives from the wreckage.

Still in Turkey, dozens of bodies, some of them covered in sheets or wrapped in body bags, were seen lined up in front of a hospital in the southern province of Hatay.

Many slept in their cars or on the streets, wrapped in blankets, afraid to enter the buildings hit by the earthquake – the deadliest in the country since 1999.