Overwhelmed rescuers in Turkey and Syria are racing to pull people from the rubble two days after a massive earthquake that has killed more than 11,000 people.
Turkey's death toll climbs to over 8,500 as President Erdogan visits some affected areasFamilies sit next to a destroyed building in Antakya, southern Turkey, on Wednesday. Thinly stretched rescue teams worked through the night and into the new day, pulling more bodies from the rubble of thousands of buildings downed in Turkey and Syria by a catastrophic earthquake.
"We haven't seen any food distribution here, unlike previous disasters in our country. We survived the earthquake, but we will die here due to hunger or cold."Speaking to reporters in Kahramanmaras province near the epicentre of the earthquake, with constant ambulance sirens in the background, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said there had been problems with roads and airports but that everything would get better by the day.
Kneeling on the auditorium floor, a woman wailed with grief and embraced a body wrapped in a blanket.Meanwhile, a container blaze at Turkey's southern port of Iskenderun has been brought under control, Turkey's maritime authority said on Wednesday, following combined extinguishing efforts from land, sea and air.
Turkey's deadliest earthquake in a generation has handed Erdogan a huge rescue and reconstruction challenge, which will overshadow the run-up to the May elections, already set to be the toughest of his two decades in power. Standing around the wreckage of what had been a 32-apartment building, relatives of people who had lived there said they had seen no one removed alive. A lack of heavy equipment to remove large concrete slabs was impeding rescue efforts.
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