UPDATED: Icy weather hampers rescue efforts as Turkey and Syria quake death toll tops 22,300

UPDATE – Friday, February 10 (1.50pm) – The death toll following Monday’s catastrophic earthquakes in Turkey and Syria has now surpassed 22,300.

Officials and medics Turkey have confirmed that 18,991 people have died there due to the quake, while there have been 3,377 deaths Syria, according to the AFP news agency, bringing the current total to 22,368.

The situation on the ground in northern Syria has been described as “absolutely catastrophic” by Syria’s civil defence group, the White Helmets.

Meanwhile, rescuers in Turkey and Syria are continuing their painstaking work, but hopes are fading for the many still trapped under the rubble.

Well over 20,000 are now confirmed to have been killed in Monday’s earthquakes in southern Turkey and northern Syria.

The latest figures released indicate that 17,600 people had died in Turkey and the death toll was at least 3,377 in Syria.

The toll surpasses the more than 17,000 killed when a similar quake hit northwest Turkey in 1999.

Freezing conditions are now threatening the lives of thousands of survivors who are currently without shelter, water and food, with Turkey’s president – Recep Tayyip Erdogan – calling the quake “the disaster of the century”.

A major international relief effort is gathering pace.

The World Bank has pledged $1.78bn in aid to Turkey including immediate finance for rebuilding basic infrastructure and to support those affected.

But the efforts of 100,000 or more rescue personnel on the ground are being hampered by a number of logistical hurdles, including vehicle shortages and devastated roads.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that a second humanitarian disaster will strike unless survivors can get access to shelter, food, water and medicine “very fast”.

The WHO’s Regional Director for Europe, Dr Hans Kluge, told the BBC the organisation’s staff in Turkey’s Gaziantep have to sleep in cars because “there’s still hundreds and hundreds of aftershocks”.

The UK’s King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla have been thanked for a “generous donation” by the UK’s Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) which is helping earthquake survivors.

The Prince and Princess of Wales also tweeted that they were supporting the appeal.

The Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Kate, said they were “horrified to see the harrowing images” in the aftermath of the earthquakes.

Funds will provide medical aid, shelter, food and water to thousands.

Many in Turkey have been critical of their government’s response to the crisis, while international aid has generally been slow to arrive.

Some 77 men and women from the UK International Search and Rescue, made up of firefighters and medics, arrived in Turkey on Wednesday and have already helped free people trapped under the rubble.

The first 7.8 magnitude quake struck near Gaziantep in the early hours of Monday, February 6, followed by a 7.5 magnitude tremor hours later.

Turkish President Erdogan has declared a three-month state of emergency in the 10 provinces worst affected.

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