Thousands evacuated in Turkey after earthquakes

The disaster management agency in Turkey said it had 11,342 reports of collapsed buildings, of which 5,775 had been confirmed. Turkey s ministry of transport and infrastructure said that over 3,400 people took shelter in trains that were used as emergency accommodation.

According to local media and Agence France-Presse, at least 20 people have been escaped from a jail holding members of Islamic State IS in north-west Syria in the wake of yesterday's earthquakes. A source at the facility said that the military police prison in the town of Rajo, near the Turkish border, had been damaged in the quakes and aftershocks, leading to a riot and escapes.

Two sites listed on the World Heritage List in Syria and Turkey sustained damage in the devastating earthquake, but the UN s cultural agency Unesco said on Tuesday it was ready to provide assistance. As well as the damage to the old city of Syria's Aleppo and the fortress in the south-eastern Turkish city of Diyarbak r, Unesco said at least three other world heritage sites could be affected.