Turkey-Syria earthquake live news: Death toll tops 29,000

By Zaheena Rasheed and Joseph Stepansky

• The death toll stands at more than 29,000 in Turkey and northwestern Syria.
• Number of deaths in Turkey rose to 24,617 on Sunday while more than 4,500 have been killed in Syria.
• 37m ago (05:56 GMT)EU envoy to Syria says accusation of not providing enough aid ‘unfair’The European Union’s envoy to Syria says it is not fair to accuse the group of failing to provide enough help to Syrians following the devastating earthquake that hit swaths of Syria and Turkey.“It is absolutely unfair to be accused of not providing aid, when actually we have constantly been doing exactly that for over a decade and we are doing so much more even during the earthquake crisis,” the head of the EU delegation, Dan Stoenescu, told Reuters news agency in written comments.The Syrian government officially requested aid on Wednesday.
• 41m ago (05:52 GMT)Aftershocks continue to jolt Turkey, SyriaAl Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu says Turkey has experienced 2356 tremors since Monday’s devastating earthquakes.She says experts are calling for more quality-control during the construction of buildings to reduce risks in the quake-prone region.Watch her dispatch from the offices of Turkey’s AFAD agency in Ankara.
• 2h ago (04:29 GMT)A father waits for rescue of three children in AntakyaNearly a week since the Turkey-Syria earthquakes, Hassan Guntekin continues to cling to the hope that his wife, three children and mother-in-law may still be alive under rubble in the Turkish city of Antakya.“I need my three children to be rescued. Even if only one of my kids survives, it will be a hope for me to continue living,” he told Al Jazeera. “Otherwise, there is no point to keep on living. I don’t know what I will do. Who will call me dad during Eid?”The Antakya resident said the Turkish government has “failed” in its response to the quakes.“They are so disorganised and can’t work at all. It is the sixth day and every day two different teams take part in the rescue,” he said.“I haven’t seen any officials here, neither from the government nor from the mayor’s office. I don’t want to see them anyway. They don’t come here because they know we don’t want to see them.”Members of a Greek rescue team work at the site of a collapsed building in Hatay, Turkey February 11, 2023 [Kemal Aslan/ Reuters]
• 2h ago (04:06 GMT)Survivors still being pulled from rubble in TurkeyRescuers pulled a seven-month-old baby and a teenage girl from the rubble, nearly a week after earthquakes devastated southeastern Turkey.The infant was rescued in the city of Hatay more than 140 hours after the quake, state media reported, while Esma Sultan, 13, was pulled from the rubble of a building in the city of Gaziantep.In the city of Kahramanmaras – the epicentre of Monday’s 7.8-magnitude tremor – a 70-year-old woman was also saved.“Is the world there?” Menekse Tabak asked as she was pulled out from the concrete to applause and cries praising God, according to a video on state broadcaster TRT Haber.
• 2h ago (04:06 GMT)Turkey-Syria quake deaths could double, says UN officialUN relief chief Martin Griffith says the death toll from the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria could “double or more” from its current levels.Commenting on the number of deaths, he told Sky News: “I think it is difficult to estimate precisely as we need to get under the rubble but I’m sure it will double or more.”“We haven’t really begun to count the number of dead,” he said.Officials and medics said 24,617 people were killed in Turkey and more than 3,500 in Syria. The confirmed total now stands at more than 28,000.
• 2h ago (04:01 GMT)Death toll in Turkey rises to 24,617Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay says at least 24,617 people have been killed in the deadly quakes that struck southeastern Turkey.Earlier, Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said some 80,278 people have been injured.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES