Turkey and Syria earthquake: death toll rises to 8,700 as hundreds of thousands left homeless by disaster – latest updates

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This girl was rescued after being trapped for 40 hours in Salqin, Idlib:

Child rescued from collapsed building after 40 hours near Idlib – video

Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us over the news wires from the disaster zone.

Turkish firefights attempt to extinguish the fire at the quake-hit port of Iskenderun which had been running for two days. Containers caught fire when they were toppled by the quake on Monday.

An emergency tent city set up at a sports stadium in Kahramanmaraş.

Rescue workers carry Yiğit Çakmak, an 8-year-old survivor away from the rubble he has been rescued from.

Burcin Gercek for Agence France-Presse reported overnight on some of the anger in Turkey at the speed of the rescue response there.

Despite the importance of every minute, no rescue team arrived at the scene in parts of the city of Gaziantep for the critical first 12 hours after the disaster, forcing victims’ relatives and local police to clear the ruins by hand, witnesses said.

And when the rescuers finally came on Monday evening, they only worked for a few hours before breaking for the night, residents told AFP.

“People revolted (on Tuesday) morning. The police had to intervene,” said Celal Deniz, 61, whose brother and nephews remain trapped.

In the miserable cold, Deniz and his relatives try to warm themselves around a fire they lit in the open air, not too far from the destroyed building.

“There isn’t anywhere that our rescuers cannot reach,” Turkey’s Red Crescent chief Kerem Kinik declared in a TV interview.

But Deniz disagreed.

“They don’t know what the people have gone through,” he said.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is set to travel to town of Pazarcık, near the epicentre of the quake, and to the worst-hit province of Hatay on Wednesday, Associated Press reports.

Nearly two days after the magnitude 7.8 quake struck south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria, killing more than 8,500 people, search teams from more than two dozen countries have joined the Turkish emergency personnel, and aid pledges have been pouring in.

Many survivors in Turkey have had to sleep in cars, outside or in government shelters.

“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,” Aysan Kurt, 27, told the AP. “We did not die from hunger or the earthquake, but we will die freezing from the cold.”

In Syria, aid efforts have been hampered by the ongoing war and the isolation of the rebel-held region along the border, which is surrounded by Russia-backed government forces. Syria itself is an international pariah under western sanctions linked to the war.

Welcome and summary so far …

Welcome to the Guardian’s continued live coverage of the aftermath of the devastating quake in southern Turkey and Syria, which has so far killed more than 8,500 people. It has just gone 10.30am in Ankara and Damascus, and this is the latest information we have:

The latest death toll from Monday’s catastrophic earthquake stands at 8,704. On Wednesday morning, AFP reported that Syria’s death toll had climbed to 2,470. At least 6,234 have died in Turkey. The numbers are expected to continue to increase during the day as more rubble is excavated.
Turkey’s disaster agency said 37,011 people had been injured, adding that more than 79,000 personnel were engaged in search and rescue operations.
More than 8,000 people so far have been pulled from the debris in Turkey, said the Turkish vice-president, Fuat Oktay. About 380,000 people have taken refuge in government shelters or hotels, with others huddling in shopping malls, stadiums, mosques and community centres.
On Tuesday afternoon, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared a disaster zone in the 10 provinces affected by the earthquakes, imposing a state of emergency in the region for three months.
Turkey’s disaster management agency said it had 11,342 reports of collapsed buildings, of which 5,775 had been confirmed. The ministry of transport and infrastructure said that on Monday night 3,400 people had taken shelter in trains being used as emergency accommodation.
In Turkey, anger is mounting over what was described as a slow and inadequate response by authorities. Many countries have sent emergency aid and search and rescue assistance already.
Syria was accused of playing politics with aid after the Syrian ambassador to the UN, Bassam Sabbagh, said his country should be responsible for the delivery of all aid into Syria, including those areas not under Syrian government control.
Three British nationals are missing after the earthquake, the UK’s foreign secretary said on Tuesday. “We assess that the likelihood of large-scale British casualties remains low,” James Cleverly said.
Four Australians are unaccounted for following the earthquakes. Australia’s foreign affairs department is providing consular assistance to the families of the nationals who were where the catastrophe struck and to about 40 other Australians and their families who were also in the area.
Satellite images released by Maxar Technologies give an idea of the scale of the challenge for emergency crews over the coming days. They show in vivid detail the breadth of the destruction that has unfolded in towns, cities and villages across the region.