Istanbul
\nThe death toll from a massive earthquake that struck Turkiye and Syria rose above 11,200 on Wednesday as rescuers raced to save survivors trapped under debris in the winter cold.
\nOfficials and medics said 8,574 people had died in Turkiye and 2,662 in Syria from Monday\u2019s 7.8-magnitude tremor, bringing the total to 11,236.
\nNearly 50,000 people were also injured in Turkiye and another 5,000 in Syria, officials and rescuers on both sides said.
\nTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave an update on the casualty figures during a visit to Kahramanmaras, a southern Turkish city at the epicentre of the initial quake. Television images showed him hugging a weeping, elderly woman and walking through a large crowd towards a Red Crescent humanitarian relief tent.
\nFacing a tough May 14 re-election, Erdogan pledged to rebuild the damaged regions within a year.
\nHe also appeared to push back against criticism that the government\u2019s response to Turkey\u2019s worst disaster in decades has been slow.
\n\u201cInitially there were issues at airports and on the roads, but today things are getting easier and tomorrow it will be easier still,\u201d he said in televised remarks.
\n\u201cWe have mobilised all our resources,\u201d he added. \u201cThe state is doing its job. \u201c
\nRescuers work in freezing temperatures
\nHeartrending scenes of a newborn plucked alive from the rubble and a broken father clutching his dead daughter\u2019s hand have laid bare the human cost of the earthquake.
\nFor two days and nights since the 7.8 magnitude quake an impromptu army of rescuers have worked in freezing temperatures to find those still entombed among ruins that pockmark several cities either side of the border.
\nThe World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that time is running out for the thousands injured and those still feared trapped.
\nFor Mesut Hancer \u2014 a resident of Turkish city Kahramanmaras, near the epicentre \u2014 it is already too late.
\nHe sat on the freezing rubble, too grief-stricken to speak, refusing to let go of his 15-year-old daughter Irmak\u2019s hand as her body lay lifeless among the slabs of concrete and strands of twisted rebar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Istanbul The death toll from a massive earthquake that struck Turkiye and Syria rose above 11,200 on Wednesday as rescuers raced to save survivors trapped under debris in the winter cold. Officials and medics said 8,574 people had died in Turkiye and 2,662 in Syria from Monday\u2019s 7.8-magnitude tremor, bringing the total to 11,236. Nearly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-312595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n