Death toll in Turkey, Syria rises to 8,700 as rescuers warn of more

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Death toll in Turkey, Syria rises to 8,700 as rescuers warn of more

KAHRAMANMARAS ANTAKYA, Turkey, Feb 8, Reuters - The official death toll of a devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria has jumped to more than 8,700 people on Wednesday as overwhelmed rescuers warned that the number would grow significantly with families still trapped under the rubble.

In Turkey, many people spent the second night of freezing temperatures sleeping in their cars or in the streets under blankets, worried to go back into buildings shaken by Monday s 7.8 magnitude quake, the country's deadliest since 1999.

Where are the food trucks and where are the tents? Melek, 64, in the southern city of Antakya, said she had not seen any rescue teams.

We haven't seen any food distribution here unlike previous disasters in our country. We survived the earthquake, but we will die due to hunger or cold here. The death toll in Turkey, now 6,234, looks likely to keep rising as a result of the disaster.

The death toll climbed to more than 2,500 overnight in neighboring Syria, already devastated by 11 years of war, according to the Syrian government and a rescue service operating in the rebel-held northwest.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces. Residents of several damaged Turkish cities have expressed anger and despair at what they said was a slow and inadequate response by the authorities.

The initial quake struck just after 4 a.m. on Monday, the dead of night in the dead of winter, giving the sleeping population little chance of reacting.

Erdogan is expected to visit some of the affected areas on Wednesday, because he is facing a tight election in May.

Some 13.5 million people were affected in an area of about 450 km 280 miles from Adana in the west to Diyarbakir in the east, which is more than that between Boston and Philadelphia or Amsterdam and Paris.

The quake, followed by a second one almost as powerful, toppled thousands of buildings, including hospitals, schools and apartment blocks, injured tens of thousands, and left countless people homeless in Turkey and northern Syria.

Rescue workers have struggled to reach some of the worst-hit areas, held back by damaged roads, poor weather and a lack of resources and heavy equipment. Aid officials expressed concern about the situation in Syria, where humanitarian needs were already larger than at any point since the eruption of a conflict that has divided the nation and is complicating relief efforts.

The World Health Organization head said the rescue efforts face a race against time, with the chances of finding survivors alive slipping away with every minute and hour.

The number of dead had climbed to more than 1,280 and more than 2,600 in Syria, according to a rescue service operating in the insurgent-held northwest.

More than 50 hours after the earthquake, the number is expected to increase significantly, because of the presence of hundreds of families under the rubble, the rescue service said on Twitter.

The Syrian health minister said overnight that the number of dead in government-held areas rose to 1,250, the state-run al-Ikhbariya news outlet reported on its Telegram feed. He said the number of wounded was 2,054.

Turkey's deadliest earthquake in a generation has given Erdogan a huge rescue and reconstruction challenge, which will overshadow the run-up to the May elections, which is already set to be the toughest of his two decades in power.

The vote, too close to calling, will determine how Turkey is governed, where its economy is headed and what role the regional power and NATO member may play to ease the conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East, according to polls before the quake.