As the death toll rises, there are less hopes of finding more earthquake survivors in Syria and Turkey.

ANTAKYA: The death toll from this week’s earthquakes in Turkey and Syria was getting close to 16,000 on Thursday, as hopes faded that many people would still be found alive 72 hours after the disaster and anger grew over how slowly aid was being sent.

An official in Turkey said that the disaster made it “very hard” to hold elections on May 14, when President Tayyip Erdogan was expected to face his toughest challenge in his 20 years in power.

In this still from a social media video from February 8, 2023, in Jandaris, Syria, the White Helmet volunteers pull a child out from under some rubble after a deadly earthquake.

— Reuters
In this still from a social media video from February 8, 2023, in Jandaris, Syria, the White Helmet volunteers pull a child out from under some rubble after a deadly earthquake.
— Reuters
On the ground, many people in Turkey and Syria slept outside or in their cars for a third night in the freezing winter because their homes were destroyed or the earthquakes made them too scared to go back inside.

The quake, which happened in the middle of the night and was followed by strong aftershocks, is likely to be the deadliest in Turkey since 1999, when a similar tremor killed more than 17,000 people.

Late Wednesday night, video from Turkey showed a few more people being saved. One of them was Abdulalim Muaini, who was pulled from his collapsed home in Hatay, Turkey, where he had been since Monday, next to his dead wife.

In Pazarcik, Turkey, on February 9, 2023, after a deadly earthquake, a general view of the damage to buildings.

— Reuters
A general view of the damage done to buildings in Pazarcik, Turkey, after a deadly earthquake on February 9, 2023.—Reuters
Meral Nakir, a 60-year-old woman who was hurt, was pulled from the rubble of an apartment building in the city of Malatya on Thursday, 77 hours after the first earthquake. This was shown live on state television by TRT.

By Thursday morning, 12,873 people had died in Turkey. More than 3,000 people have died in Syria, which has been in a civil war for almost 12 years. This is according to both the government and a rescue service in the rebel-held northwest.

Raed Saleh, head of the rescue service in the northwest, told Reuters on Thursday morning that the number of people killed and hurt is likely to go up a lot more because many families are still trapped under collapsed buildings.

“No help has come yet, and we are still waiting to see if it will come today,” he said.

Aid officials say that UN aid to northwest Syria, which is vital to the lives of 4 million people, will start to flow again on Thursday. The route was cut off by the earthquake.

In Turkey, many people have said that they don’t have the tools, knowledge, or help to save those who are stuck, even though they could sometimes hear cries for help.

The main road into the Turkish city of Antakya was jammed with cars as people who had finally found gas tried to leave the disaster area and aid trucks tried to get in. This made it harder for people to get help.

After being criticised for how the country responded, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan went to the disaster area on Wednesday and said that everything was back to normal and that no one would be left without a home.

One government official told Reuters that it was too soon to talk about elections since 15% of Turks lived in the area that was affected. “Right now, it’s very hard to hold an election on May 14,” he said, even though that was what had been planned.

People in a large part of southern Turkey have been looking for temporary shelter and food in the freezing winter weather. They have also been waiting in agony by piles of rubble where they think family and friends may still be buried.

“What state is it? Where did they spend the last two days? We beg them to do it. We can get them out if we do it “Sabiha Alinak said this near a collapsed building in Malatya that was covered in snow and where her young relatives were stuck.

23 million were hurt
In Syria, it’s hard to help people because of the conflict that has split the country in two and destroyed its infrastructure.

After an earthquake that killed people in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, on February 8, 2023, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan talks to the media.

— Reuters
After an earthquake that killed people in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, on February 8, 2023, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan talks to the media.
— Reuters
Yousef Nahas, a resident of Salqeen in the northwest of Syria, said by phone, “There are a lot of people under the rubble, but there isn’t any heavy equipment to pull them out, and the volunteer teams can’t work with light equipment.”

Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations said that his country’s government lacked “capabilities and equipment.” He said that more than a decade of civil war and Western sanctions were to blame.

El-Mostafa Benlamlih, the head of UN aid in Syria, said that 10.9 million people in the northwestern governorates of Hama, Latakia, Idlib, Aleppo, and Tartus had been affected by the disaster.

Officials in Turkey say that about 13.5 million people were affected in an area that stretches from Adana in the west to Diyarbakir in the east and is about 450 km (280 miles) long. People were killed in Syria as far south as Hama, which is 250 km from the centre.

Erdogan declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces and sent troops to help. On Wednesday, he went to Kahramanmaras, where he said that roads and airports had problems at first but that “we are better today.”

Still, the disaster will make the election more difficult for the president who has been in power for a long time.

If people think that the government isn’t doing enough to deal with the disaster, it could hurt his chances. On the other hand, analysts say he could get people all over the country to help him deal with the crisis, which would strengthen his position.

The Netblocks internet observatory said that Twitter was temporarily blocked in Turkey on Wednesday, just as people had come to “depend on the service” after the disaster.