Rescue survivors pulled from rubble in Turkey

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Rescue survivors pulled from rubble in Turkey

In T rkiye, footage emerged late on Wednesday of a few survivors being rescued, including Abdulalim Muaini, who had been pulled from his collapsed home in Hatay, T rkiye, where he had been since Monday next to his deceased wife.

Rescue workers pulled an injured 60-year-old woman named Meral Nakir from the rubble of an apartment block in Malatya, 77 hours after the first quake struck, state broadcaster TRT showed in live coverage on Thursday.

The death toll in T rkiye jumped to 12,873 by Thursday morning. More than 3,000 people have died in Syria, which has been devastated by nearly 12 years of civil war, according to the government and a rescue service in the rebel-held northwest.

In the devastated Syrian town of Jandaris, Ibrahim Khalil Menkaween walked in the rubble-strewn streets clutching a folded white body bag. He said he had lost seven members of his family, including his wife and two of his brothers.

I am holding this bag for when they bring out my brother and my brother's young son, and both of their wives, so we can pack them in bags, he said.

The situation is very bad. There is no aid. Aid officials hope to deliver aid to northwest Syria from T rkiye on Thursday, using a crossing that had been closed since the quake.

Many people complained of a lack of equipment, expertise and support to rescue those trapped in T rkiye - sometimes even as they could hear cries for help.

The main road into the Turkish city of Antakya was clogged with traffic as residents who had finally managed to find scarce gasoline tried to leave the disaster zone and aid trucks headed into the area.

People picked through cardboard boxes of clothes dropped off as donations at a gas station near Kemalpasa.

After facing criticism over the response, Erdogan said on Wednesday that operations were now working normally and promised that no one would be left homeless.

The Turkish official told Reuters that it was too early to discuss the situation, as 15 per cent of Turks live in the affected area. He said that there were very serious difficulties in holding an election on May 14, as had been planned.

People have sought temporary shelter and food in freezing winter weather, and waited in anguish by piles of rubble where family and friends might still lie buried.