The death toll from the earthquake in southern Türkiye and northern Syria has climbed past 11,500, making it the deadliest seismic event in more than a decade.
Key points:
- Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has travelled to the Kahramanmaras province, near the epicentre of the earthquake
- Türkiye now has some 60,000 aid personnel in the quake-hit zone, including teams from other countries
- In Syria, aid efforts have been hampered by the ongoing war and the isolation of the rebel-held region
Thinly stretched rescue teams worked through the night, pulling more bodies from the rubble of thousands of buildings toppled by the catastrophic magnitude-7.8 earthquake.
Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is visiting the quake zone. He said the fatalities in Türkiye alone have passed 9,000.
He conceded shortfalls in the response during the first day but said the situation has improved since then.
"We won't allow any of our citizens to be left in the streets," he said.
In neighbouring 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 1,400 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.
In 2011, a magnitude-9.0 quake off the north-east coast of Japan triggered a tsunami, killing nearly 20,000 people.
A magnitude-7.8 earthquake in Nepal in 2015 killed more than 8,800 people.
Speaking to reporters in the Kahramanmaras province near the epicentre of the earthquake, with constant ambulance sirens in the background, Mr Erdoğan said there had been problems with roads and airports but that everything would get better by the day.
The Turkish government has been criticised for what some say has been a slow response to the disaster.
“It is not possible to be prepared for such a disaster," Mr Erdoğan said.
He also hit back at critics, saying ”dishonourable people" were spreading “lies and slander” about the government's response.
Türkiye now has some 60,000 aid personnel in the quake-hit zone, but with the devastation so widespread many are still waiting for help.
Search teams from more than two dozen countries joined the Turkish emergency personnel, and aid pledges poured in.
But with devastation spread across multiple several cities and towns — some isolated by Syria's ongoing conflict — voices crying from within mounds of rubble fell silent, and despair grew from those still waiting for help.
Authorities working against the clock
Experts said the survival window for those trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings or unable to access water, food and protection from the elements was closing rapidly closing almost three days after the quake.
Rescuers at times used excavators in their searches and picked gingerly through debris at other points to locate survivors or the dead.
With thousands of buildings toppled, it was not clear how many people might still be caught in the rubble.
Turkey's disaster management agency said on Wednesday that people who died in the earthquake but cannot be identified would be buried within five days even if they remained unnamed.
The agency, known as AFAD, said unidentified victims would be buried following DNA tests, finger printing and after being photographed for future identification.
The move is in line with Islamic funeral rites which require a burial to take place as quickly as possible after a person's death.
In Syria, the shaking toppled thousands of buildings and heaped more misery on a region racked by the country's 12-year civil war and refugee crisis.
Türkiye is home to millions of refugees from the war.
The affected area in Syria is divided between government-controlled territory and the country's last opposition-held enclave, where millions rely on humanitarian aid.
The European Union said Wednesday that Syria had finally asked for humanitarian assistance to deal with the victims of the devastating earthquake and insisted the bloc's sanctions against the government had no impact on its potential to help.
On Wednesday, Syria's Prime Minister Hussein Arnous visited neighbourhoods in the northern city of Aleppo that saw buildings collapse because of the earthquake.
"Our priority now is to rescue the people who are still under the rubble," he said.
UN 'exploring all avenues' to get aid to rebel-held Syria
As many as 23 million people could be affected in the quake-hit region, according to Adelheid Marschang, a senior emergencies officer with the World Health Organization, who called it a "crisis on top of multiple crises".
Many survivors in Türkiye 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."
Mr Erdoğan said 13 million of the country's 85 million people were affected, and he declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces.
He added that the government aims to build housing within one year for those left without a home in the 10 provinces affected.
More than 8,000 people have been pulled from the debris in Türkiye, and some 380,000 have taken refuge in government shelters or hotels, authorities said.
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.
The United Nations said it was "exploring all avenues" to get supplies to the rebel-held north-west.
In addition to the thousands killed in Türkiye, another 40,910 have been injured.
The region sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes.
Some 18,000 were killed in similarly powerful earthquakes that hit north-west Türkiye in 1999.
AP/Reuters