Turkey earthquake: Shelterbox sends aid team

ShelterBox is sending a team to Turkey to work out what support is needed

Cornwall disaster relief charity ShelterBox said it was sending a team to Turkey to help people after the devastating earthquake.

Initially the team will be working out what type of emergency support is needed.

More than 5,000 people have died after the earthquake hit southern Turkey and northern Syria.

ShelterBox said its team would arrive in Turkey later this week as the death toll continues to rise.

Sam Hewett, the charity's regional director, said the organisation was assessing the "wider response effort" to coordinate its own efforts.

"The other complication you've got here is [the disaster zone] straddles a border - you've got Syria on one side and Turkey on the other," he told BBC Radio Cornwall.

"The way we would respond to those, because of the ongoing conflict in Syria, will be very different.

"We're trying to work out how we can divide our resources effectively between those two countries."

'Threat to life'

Alice Jefferson, ShelterBox head of emergency response, said freezing temperatures and heavy rain were also hampering the international rescue effort.

"The poor weather poses a real threat to life for people whose homes are now rubble or unsafe to return to," she said.

"Access and communication are challenging and that's why responses must be well-coordinated to make sure that the right aid is getting to the right people, in the right place, at the right time."

The charity said it was working with its existing partners in Syria, where it was already providing relief due to the ongoing civil war, on the response there.

It said it could provide a range of support including tents, shelter kits and cash to affected people.

Shelterbox was set up in 2000 in Helston, Cornwall, and has since provided emergency shelter and disaster relief in 98 countries, including in Ukraine.

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