Turkey, Syria earthquake deaths top 46,000
More than 46 thousand people have been killed in the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria and the toll is expected to soar, with some 345,000 apartments in Turkey now known to have been destroyed, and many still missing.
As Turkey attempts to manage its worst modern disaster, concerns were growing over the victims of the tragedy in Syria, with the World Food Programme (WFP) pressuring authorities in the northwest to stop blocking access to the area as it seeks to help hundreds of thousands of people ravaged by earthquakes.
Twelve days after the quake hit, workers from Kyrgyzstan tried to save a Syrian family of 5 from the rubble of a building in Antakya city in southern Turkey.
3 people, including a child, were rescued alive. The mother and father survived but the child died later of dehydration, the rescue team said. One older sister and a twin did not make it.
The head of Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), Yunus Sezer, said the search and rescue efforts will largely be terminated on Sunday night.
The death toll in Turkey stands at 40,642 from the quake while neighbouring Syria has reported more than five thousand and eight hundred deaths, a toll that has not changed for days.
In Syria, already shattered by more than a decade of civil war, the bulk of fatalities have been in the northwest. Thousands of Syrians who had sought refuge in Turkey from the civil war have returned to their homes in the war zone - at least for now.
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