Turkish police have also detained 18 people over \u201cprovocative\u201d social media posts that criticised the government\u2019s response.<\/p>\n
Freezing temperatures deepened the misery Thursday for survivors of a massive earthquake in Turkiye and Syria that killed at least 15,000 people, as rescuers raced to save countless people still trapped under rubble.<\/p>\n
The death toll from Monday\u2019s 7.8-magnitude quake is expected to rise sharply as rescue efforts near the 72-hour mark that disaster experts consider the most likely period to save lives.<\/p>\n
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday conceded \u201cshortcomings\u201d after criticism of his government\u2019s response to the massive earthquake, which is one of the deadliest this century.<\/p>\n
Survivors have been left to scramble for food and shelter \u2014 and in some cases watch helplessly as their relatives called for rescue, and eventually went silent under the debris.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy nephew, my sister-in-law and my sister-in-law\u2019s sister are in the ruins. They are trapped under the ruins and there is no sign of life,\u201d said Semire Coban, a kindergarten teacher, in Turkey\u2019s Hatay.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t reach them. We are trying to talk to them, but they are not responding\u2026 We are waiting for help. It has been 48 hours now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Still, rescuers kept pulling survivors from the debris, even as the death toll continued to rise.<\/p>\n
As criticism mounted online, Erdogan visited one of the hardest-hit spots, quake epicentre Kahramanmaras, and acknowledged problems in the response.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, there are shortcomings. The conditions are clear to see. It\u2019s not possible to be ready for a disaster like this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Twitter was not working on Turkish mobile networks, according to\u00a0AFP<\/em>\u00a0journalists and NetBlocks web monitoring group.<\/p>\n Turkish police have also detained 18 people over \u201cprovocative\u201d social media posts that criticised the government\u2019s response.<\/p>\n Temperatures plunged to minus-five degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit) in Gaziantep early Thursday. But the cold did not stop thousands of families from spending the night in cars and makeshift tents, too scared or banned from returning to their homes.<\/p>\n Parents walked the streets of the southeastern Turkish city \u2014 close to the epicentre of the earthquake \u2014 carrying their children in blankets because it was warmer than sitting in a tent.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we sit down, it is painful, and I fear for anyone who is trapped under the rubble in this,\u201d said Melek Halici, who wrapped her two-year-old daughter in a blanket as they watched rescuers working late into Wednesday night.<\/p>\n Officials and medics said 12,391 people had died in Turkiye and at least 2,992 in neighbouring Syria from Monday\u2019s quake, bringing the total to 15,383. Experts fear the number will continue to rise sharply.<\/p>\n In Brussels, the EU is planning a donor conference in March to mobilise international aid for Syria and Turkiye.<\/p>\n Due to the scale of the damage and the lack of help coming to certain areas, survivors said they felt alone in responding to the disaster.<\/p>\n \u201cEven the buildings that haven\u2019t collapsed were severely damaged. There are now more people under the rubble than those above it,\u201d a resident named Hassan, who did not provide his full name, said in the rebel-held Syrian town of Jindayris.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are around 400-500 people trapped under each collapsed building, with only 10 people trying to pull them out. And there is no machinery,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The White Helmets, leading efforts to rescue people buried under rubble in rebel-held areas of Syria, have appealed for international help in their \u201crace against time\u201d.<\/p>\n They have been toiling since the quake to pull survivors out from under the debris of dozens of flattened buildings in northwestern areas of war-torn Syria that remain outside the government\u2019s control.<\/p>\n A leading UN official called for the facilitation of aid access to rebel-held areas in the northwest, warning that relief stocks will soon be depleted.<\/p>\n<\/a>Children saved<\/h2>\n
\u2018People dying every second\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"People](\"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/02\/090949078108c63.jpg\")
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