Survivors found five days after quake as death toll passes 25,000
Updates from BBC correspondents on the ground: Assaf Abboud in Aleppo, Nick Beake in Gaziantep, Quentin Sommerville in Syria, Lyse Doucet in Osmaniye, Tom Bateman in Adana, and Alice Cuddy in Iskenderun
Related Video and Audio
RTL
Live Reporting
Edited by Jeremy Gahagan and Marita Moloney
All times stated are UK
Get involved
What's been happening?
If you're just joining our live coverage, or in need of a catch-up, let's take a look at today's main headlines coming from Turkey and Syria following Monday's devastating earthquake:
Economic loss of devastating quake could exceed $4bn
More than 17,000 people lost their lives in Monday's earthquake and tens of thousands more lost their homes. It's also feared the economic impact on the region could be huge.
The ratings agency Fitch suggests the disaster could cause economic losses exceeding $4bn (£3.3bn).
"Economic losses are hard to estimate as the situation is evolving, but they appear likely to exceed" $2 billion and could reach $4 billion "or more", Fitch Ratings said.
Insured losses will be much lower, possibly around $1 billion, due to low insurance coverage in the area, it added.
Credit rating agencies, in essence, rate a country on the strength of its economy.
UK volunteers rescue survivors in Turkey
Seventy-seven members of UK International Search and Rescue Team (UK ISAR) are helping with the rescue operation in Turkey.
In a tweet, the team said they have been working "tirelessly" 24 hours a day to try to save people trapped under rubble.
Two women, aged 60 and 90, have been rescued as a result of their efforts, they added.
On top of UK ISAR's volunteers, smaller crews of UK volunteers from other organisations have now been given permission to join the search operation, the PA news agency reports.
Watching the search for family on Zoom
Ashitha Nagesh
BBC News Community Affairs Correspondent
Outside a small community centre in Enfield, north London, Lutfi Erguven is intently watching something on his phone.
On the small screen, rescuers can be seen digging through rubble. They're looking for people trapped in wreckage in Mr Erguven's home town in southern Turkey.
He isn't watching a clip from a news bulletin, Mr Erguven tells BBC News - it's a Zoom call. Rescue teams are sharing their efforts in a video call so that Turkish people in the UK and elsewhere can join the search for their loved ones remotely.
The Zoom link, he says, has been shared in Turkish WhatsApp groups. Dozens of people have been joining in the hopes of finding out their loved ones are safe.
Mr Erguven has given those searching the rubble the name of his cousin. He hopes that they find him alive.
"They haven't found my cousin yet, but they've found other people," he says. "That's good news for us as well."
Mr Erguven explains that he has travelled from his home in Edinburgh down to London to join others from his community in person. While there are Turkish communities across the UK, the vast majority live in north London.
Fifteen-hour journey from Istanbul showed signs of catastrophe
Lyse Doucet
Chief International Correspondent
Our 15-hour journey south through the night from the Turkish city of Istanbul showed tell-tale signs of this catastrophe.
The landscape itself kept shifting, from terrain lightly dusted in snow to mountains and fields blanketed in white.
Temperatures kept dropping, below zero – the kind of unusual cold in this time which has worsened the woes of earthquake survivors, and their rescuers.
In the dead of night, we queued for petrol for two and half hours with lorries ferrying supplies, ambulances carrying urgent aid, and vehicles of all sorts.
Emergency workers in hi-vis jackets huddled together, savouring the warmth of hot liquids, and a brief pause in their perilous missions.
The fourth day of this disaster dawned bright and clear. A popular truckers’ stop was packed, with only lentil soup on offer.
As we drove into Osmaniye, we caught sight of blue tents pitched on hilltops, and empty wooden coffins piled high in a park next to a cemetery full of people walking to newly dug graves.
Travelling to the earthquake zone is not a smooth ride
Alice Cuddy, Reporting from Iskenderun
On the way to Hatay province from the southern city of Adana, there is heavy traffic as heavy machinery, buses of rescue workers, and citizens carrying piles of water and food try to make their way through.
Ambulances blaring their sirens regularly race back and forth at the side of the roads, and helicopters can be seen overhead transferring patients to hospitals.
Some bits of road are badly damaged.
Along the route, we pass people who have lost their homes, and stand on the side of the road looking for a way to get out of the area.
One couple carrying small suitcases told us they were looking for a bus to take them away from Hatay and were willing to go anywhere.
In Iskenderun, you pass mounds of rubble where tall buildings used to stand, and overturned cars.
On one street, you drive through sea water, which the earthquake brought to land.
Young volleyball players lost in the rubble
Hatice Kamer in Adiyaman and James FitzGerald in London
Some of the devastating stories of those lost in the quake are beginning to emerge.
Among them, is that of a volleyball team who were staying in a hotel in Adiyaman when the earthquake struck.
The bodies of two teachers and a student have been found in the wreckage of the now collapsed building.
39 members of the Famagusta Turkish Education College girls and boys volleyball teams were staying at the seven-floor Isias hotel.
Teachers Pamir Konuklu and İbrahim Yakula have been confirmed dead along with one of their students who has been named as Doruk Akın.
Four are known to have survived - recovery efforts are continuing.
Read more here.
BreakingFirst aid convoy reaches northern Syria
David Gritten
BBC News
The first convoy of aid for opposition-held north-western Syria since Monday's devastating earthquake has reportedly now crossed into the territory from Turkey.
Officials said six lorries had gone through Idlib's Bab al-Hawa crossing.
Deliveries of life-saving aid to the region were halted for four days due to damage to roads and logistical issues.
Rescue workers there say at least 1,900 people have been killed and that hundreds of families are trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings.
Even before the earthquake struck, 4.1 million residents - most of them women and children - were relying on humanitarian assistance to survive.
Shop stocks running low, but rescue teams get priority
Alice Cuddy, Reporting from Iskenderun
At a garage In Iskenderun, queues form outside as people try to buy supplies.
Shop worker Sema says she hasn’t left the shop since the earthquake, because they have been so overwhelmed with customers.
“I haven’t moved from here. We are running short of items and can’t get more supplies,” she tells us.
She fears that the shop will be looted and now stands at the door letting only three customers in at a time, unless rescue teams need food or drinks.
She doesn’t know how much longer the stock will last.
Are you in an affected area?
If it is safe to do so share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:
Please read our terms & conditions and privacy policy
Few dare go back inside their homes
Quentin Sommerville
Reporting from Antakya
A supermarket carpark has become home for many here. Despite the freezing temperatures people are sleeping in the open and some in their cars.
They burn wood and sit around braziers during the night. It's day four since the earthquake hit and there's no heat, electricity nor running water.
But few will dare go back inside their homes.
I watched yesterday as a man asked rescue workers if he could climb inside his partially collapsed apartment block, he needed medicine, he said.
"Only if it's a matter of life and death," he was told. He nodded and climbed over the rubble to retrieve what was needed.
It's four days since the earthquake struck and there isn't much that separates life and death in Antakya.
Doctors speak of hardest days of their careers so far
Alice Cuddy, Reporting from Iskenderun
In Hatay province, local doctors Mehmet and Selda told us about what they described as the hardest days of their careers and lives so far.
They live in the city of Iskenderun, where many buildings have been reduced to rubble, including the busy hospital where Selda works.
Instead of returning to her normal job on Tuesday, Selda spent the day “filling in death certificates”. She is now working at another hospital, treating survivors.
Mehmet said he had a constant influx of patients who had been crushed or injured in the earthquake.
“We've seen lots of broken bones, broken necks, head injuries. And lots of deaths," he said.
“We thought Covid was bad - we worked around the clock and there were lots of deaths. But I’ve seen nothing like this.”
Latest images from the earthquake zone
First convoy of aid making its way to north-west Syria - report
Alys Davies
BBC News Live reporter
Our Middle East correspondent Anna Foster has just been explaining why it's so tricky to get aid into rebel-held parts of northern Syria that have been terribly affected by this quake.
But we're now hearing that the first convoy of humanitarian aid to try and reach that region is on its way to the southern Turkish border.
Reuters news agency, citing aid sources, says a convoy of six aid trucks is hoping to cross later via the Bab al-Hawa crossing.
The UN has said access through this crossing will be a "lifeline" for millions in need of humanitarian assistance. The situation was already dire before the earthquake, but now it is desperate. Hundreds of buildings have been destroyed and at least 1,700 people have been killed.
Politics stands in way of aid to Syria
Anna Foster
Reporting from Gaziantep
Getting aid into north-western Syria is proving to be a huge problem.
The aid routes that used to exist into the country - which is almost 12 years into a civil war - have been gradually closed over the years. Currently there is only one such crossing left into rebel-held territory, Bab al-Hawa.
It only remains open due to a UN Security Council mandate.
The mandate was renewed again in January for another six months. But damage done to the crossing during the earthquake means that the route has been closed for a number of days.
Even when the crossing is in use, it is still extremely logistically difficult to take aid through. Because of the political situation, aid convoys cannot go through and reach rebel-held north-western Syria without permission.
That is why you’re seeing aid coming into Turkey en masse and not to Syria. Politics stands in the way.
Dust and dirt covers everything in sight
Quentin Sommerville
Reporting from Antakya
There are still aftershocks here and there's a constant risk of more buildings collapsing. But most homes are already gone.
A man comes up to me and tells me his brothers are buried in a building nearby and need help. This happens a lot here.
The air is thick from fire smoke, people are burning wood to keep warm. Everything is coated in the dust and dirt of the collapsed and collapsing buildings.
Helicopters flying overhead add to the post-apocalyptic feel. Those still trapped under buildings are enduring hell, but those that escaped aren't faring much better.
Anger at building standards grows in Turkey
Anger is growing in Turkey that poor enforcement of building regulations contributed to the collapse of many buildings in Monday's earthquakes.
Construction regulations were tightened following previous disasters in Turkey, most recently in 2018.
Stricter safety standards were also brought in following the 1999 earthquake around the city of Izmit, in the north-west of the country, in which 17,000 people died.
But periodic "construction amnesties", which offer legal exemption to those structures built without the required safety certificates for a stated fee, have contributed to the recent catastrophe, experts suggest.
Video content
Up to 75,000 buildings across the affected earthquake zone in southern Turkey have been given amnesties, according to Pelin Pınar Giritlioğlu, Istanbul head of the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects' Chamber of City Planners.
BBC's Reality Check has been looking at some of the more recently constructed buildings which collapsed during Monday's earthquake and what claims were originally made regarding earthquake compliance by the companies who completed them.
Read on to find out more.
Biggest Turkish expat community sends aid from Germany
Jenny Hill
Berlin correspondent
Outside a small café in Berlin, volunteers heave bags stuffed with clothing, nappies and blankets into waiting trucks.
Germany is home to the biggest Turkish ex-pat community in the world. As they anxiously wait for news of loved ones, people here find their sorrow and pain overwhelmed by the impulse to do something.
There are makeshift depots like this all over the city and the country.
"We try not to think about it" says organiser Safiye Erguen, "Just help, help, help, even though we know it’s really bad there."
Germany’s phone operators have made all calls and texts to Turkey and Syria free for now.
One of the volunteers has been able to contact his relatives. "So far they’re ok" Bulend tells us, "But they’re all outdoors looking for shelter."
His van is crammed with donations which he plans to drive to Turkey himself. It is, he told us, a question of humanity.
‘I barely survived the earthquake. Now I have no home’
Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Hatay
In Hatay province, we met Leyla Kurtdereli at her former home.
Recalling the moment the earthquake struck, she told us: “First I heard something that sounded like a howling sound, and I could not work out what it was.
“Suddenly, I felt like I was jumping about two metres high. I thought it was going to last forever. All of a sudden the walls started exploding and collapsed in on us. The door was stuck and we couldn’t open it. I had to crawl like a spider through my home. It took 45 minutes to find a way out.”
Her former apartment block still stands, but is badly damaged and Leyla is not allowed back inside.
Through tears, she says she has lost her home and all of her possessions. She is now staying with her daughter.
She says she has heard of problems with looting since the earthquake, and worries that some of her treasured belongings may be stolen.
Around Leyla’s former apartment, residents who do not have relatives or friends they can stay with are now living on the streets, lighting fires to keep warm through the cold nights.
Every second means saving a life - White Helmets
Syria's White Helmets say "time is running out", with "hundreds of families" still stuck under the rubble of collapsed buildings in Syria.
It says their teams continue to search for survivors "amid great difficulties" and with a need for heavy machinery to remove rubble.
"Every second means saving a life," they says.