“THE QUIET IS AGONISING”
Monday’s quake was the largest Türkiye has seen since 1939, when 33,000 people died in the eastern Erzincan province.
Officials and medics said 17,674 people had died in Türkiye and 3,377 in Syria from Monday’s tremor, bringing the confirmed total to 21,051.
Experts fear the number will continue to rise sharply.
Anger has mounted over the government’s handling of the disaster.
“People who didn’t die from the earthquake were left to die in the cold,” Hakan Tanriverdi told AFP in Adiyaman province, one of the areas hardest hit.
On a visit to the area, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan admitted there had been “shortcomings” in the government’s handling of the disaster.
Despite the difficulties, thousands of local and foreign searchers have not given up the hunt for more survivors.
In the devastated Turkish town of Nurdagi, close to the epicentre, emergency workers using drones and heat-detecting monitors ordered silence when a potential survivor was found.
“The quiet is agonising. We just don’t know what to expect,” Emre, a local resident, said as he waited next to one block on a main road into the town.
RELIEF PLEDGES
Dozens of nations, including China and the United States, have pledged to help.
The World Bank said it would give us$1.78 billion in aid to Türkiye to help with relief and recovery efforts.
Immediate assistance of US$780 million will be offered from two existing projects in Türkiye, said the bank, while an added US$1 billion in operations is being prepared to support affected people.
In addition to a staggering human toll, the quake’s economic cost appears likely to exceed US$2 billion and could reach US$4 billion or more, Fitch Ratings said.
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