Turkey-Syria earthquake UPDATES: Over 34,000 killed, another 4.7 magnitude quake hits Turkiye's Kahramanmaras

After years of war, residents of areas in northwest Syria struck by a massive earthquake are grappling with their new and worsening reality. Almost one week after the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck northern Syria and neighbouring Turkiye, the United Nations has acknowledged an international failure to help Syrian quake victims. In Atareb, a town that Syrian rebels still hold after years of fighting government troops, survivors dug through the debris of their homes Sunday, picking up the remnants of their shattered lives and looking for ways to heal after the latest in a series of humanitarian disasters to hit the war-battered area. Excavators lifted rubble and residents with shovels and picks destroyed columns to even out a demolished building.

When Zafer Mahmut Boncuk's apartment building collapsed in Turkiye's devastating earthquake, he discovered his 75-year-old mother was still alive- but pinned under the wreckage. For hours, Boncuk frantically searched for someone in the ancient, devastated city of Antakya to help him free her. He was able to talk to her, hold her hand and give her water. Despite his pleas, however, no one came, and she died on Tuesday, the day after the quake. Like many others in Turkiye, his sorrow and disbelief have turned to rage over the sense there has been an unfair and ineffective response to the historic disaster that has killed tens of thousands of people there and in Syria. Boncuk directed his anger at President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, especially because she seemed so close to rescue but no one came. Her remains were finally removed Sunday, nearly a week after the building collapsed. His father's body is still in the rubble. “What would happen if it was your own mother, dear Recep Tayyip Erdogan? What happened to being a world leader? Where are you? Where?” he screamed. “I gave her water to drink, I cleared her face of rubble. I told her that I would save her. But I failed,” said Boncuk, 60. “The last time we spoke, I asked if I should help her drink some water. She said no, so I rubbed some water on her lips. Ten minutes later, she died.”

Rescue workers in Turkey continued to search for survivors and pull them out from the rubble after the deadly earthquake jolted Turkey and neighbouring Syria on February 6.Women in the Nurdagi region of Turkey's Gaziantep were seen crying as their family members are still in debris, where the search and rescue operation is being conducted. People waited as rescuers carried out search operations among the rubble of collapsed buildings in Nurdagi. Women and girls were seen crying inconsolably as they awaited news of their family members and loved ones under the debris. A group of women huddled together with pain on their faces, seemingly losing all hope amid a mounting death toll in Turkey that exceeded 24,000.

The Libyan government has sent two airplanes full of relief items to Syria and Turkey to help deal with the impact of the deadly earthquake. "We sent airplanes carrying relief items as well as more than 70 medical, emergency and recovery personnel," Gibril Shtewi, a Libyan aid official told Xinhua on Sunday. The Libyan teams so far rescued 27 people, recovered 53 bodies, and provided medical assistance to more than 400 people in southern Turkey, Xinhua news agency reported. The Libyan government has sent 55 rescue and safety specialists as well as four tracing dogs to "help authorities in Turkey deal with the consequences of the earthquakes". More than 30,000 people were killed and many more were injured so far after two strong earthquakes hit Syria and Turkiye on February 6.

The two major earthquakes, which last Monday devastated a huge area in south-eastern Turkey and a part of Syria, killing more than 24,500 people in Turkey and 4500 in Syria, wounding tens of thousands and leaving a huge but unknown number of missing persons have upended the election plans of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.For the first time in 20 years, Erdogan's political future is really on the line. He must now prove that he is a leader who can get things done and can mobilize effectively the machine of the state to provide relief to the affected people and help them rebuild their homes and their lives. The two major earthquakes at magnitudes of 7.7 and 7.6 caused the collapse like a house of cards of many thousands of residential and public buildings as well as hotels and hospitals in 10 provinces, affecting more than 7.6 million people.Martin Griffiths, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, said he expects the death toll to at least double.

Terming the development "unfortunate," indias-ambassador-to-turkey">India's Ambassador to Turkey Virander Paul said that the mortal remains of the only Indian, who went missing and later found dead in a hotel, are in the process of being sent to his family member in Uttarakhand. Paul said that it is s "very unfortunate" that the only missing Indian national was found dead yesterday. "We are in the process of earliest transportation of his mortal remains to India," he told ANI.Vijay Kumar, a resident of Kotdwar in Uttarakhand, was on a business trip to Turkey at the time of the earthquake. His mortal remains were found and identified among the debris of a hotel in Malatya. He had left Kotdwar on 23 January.In addition, the ambassador said, "Indian embassy in turkey is in direct touch with the victim's family."The Indian embassy in Turkey is in talks with the Turkish Government about the clearance and other documentation work to send the mortal remains as soon as possible through commercial flights.

A total of 275 shelters have been opened across Syria, hosting victims of the earthquake that hit the country on February 6, the Ministry of Local Administration and Environment said. In a short statement, the Ministry on Sunday said that 235 shelters were opened in the northern Aleppo province, 32 in the northwestern province of Latakia, five in Hama province, and two in Tartous province. The statement spelled no details about the situation in the rebel-held areas in Idlib province and the northern countryside of Aleppo, Xinhua news agency reported. According to the Syrian Health ministry, the death toll has risen to 1,414 and the wounded to 2,349 as of Sunday evening. The UN said on Friday that the earthquake in Syria had displaced 5.3 million people. Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the death toll could be more than 5,300 in Syria, and the number could rise to as many as 7,000 as many people are still buried under the rubble. Rescuers carry out rescue operation with rescue dogs in Adiyaman, Turkey, Feb. 8, 2023. The death toll from Monday's devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria has surpassed 17,000, according to latest data.

An earthquake of magnitude 4.7 struck Turkey's southern city of Kahramanmaras on Sunday, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the epicentre of the first 7.8-magnitude tremor that upturned millions of lives in the pre-dawn hours of last Monday. "A magnitude 4.7, 24 km SSE of Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Time 00:03 hrs; Location: 37.390°N 37.048°E; Depth: 15.7," USGS reported.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says it is waiting for final approval to send crossline deliveries into northwest Syria, where rebel groups in the country's long-running civil war control territory and aid deliveries have faced obstacles, reported CNN. The WHO hopes its Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will soon be able to travel into the rebel-held areas hit by the devastating earthquake, the organization said Sunday. Tedros and a team of top WHO officials arrived in Aleppo on Saturday on a humanitarian aid flight carrying over USD 290,000 worth of trauma emergency and surgical kits.

The death toll from the earthquakes in Turkey and northwestern Syria has gone past 34,000 as rescue efforts continue, reported CNN. It reached at least 34,179 on Sunday. The death toll in Turkey has reached 29,605, said the Turkish Emergency Coordination Center SAKOM. The confirmed death toll in Syria is 4,574. That number includes more than 3,160 in opposition-held parts of northwestern Syria, according to the health ministry of the Salvation Government governance authority.The Syrian death toll also includes 1,414 deaths in government-controlled parts of Syria, according to the state news agency SANA.