February 9, 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake news

Our live coverage of the quake and rescue efforts in Turkey and Syria has moved here.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Syria have been left homeless in the middle of winter following Monday's deadly earthquakes. Across northwestern Syria — where temperatures are below freezing — many people are staying in makeshift shelters, mosques and in the ruins of destroyed buildings.

Mousa Zidane, a volunteer with the “White Helmets,” officially known as Syria Civil Defense, told CNN on Thursday that in the aftermath of the quakes, "tens of thousands of families are currently homeless all over northwest Syria."

"Hundreds of families in Idlib are sleeping in their cars, public parks, and streets," after their homes were destroyed, Zidane said. "Even those who still have homes, they are scared to spend the night indoors, they briefly go to their homes during the day then they leave at night out of fear [of further earthquakes]."

Zidane said the cold weather is adding to the catastrophe, as rescue teams struggle to extract people from under the rubble.

People need their homes back and their dead "pulled out and buried," Zidane added. 

When asked about diggers, Zidane said they were not initially available, but a limited number are now working to clear the debris. "Not enough to cover the whole area. We need more," he said. 

Zidane said there is limited access to aid that doesn't cover people's needs in northwest Syria, much of which is controlled by anti-government rebels amid a humanitarian crisis resulting from Syria's more than decade-long civil war. 

"We are feeling, again, like we are abandoned by the world. We are feeling like the world let us down, again, because no one came and helped us with our catastrophe," Zidane said in a tweeted video.

More than 21,000 people have died in Turkey and Syria after earthquakes swept through the region Monday. Rescue workers are now racing against time to pull survivors from the rubble of collapsed buildings in freezing winter conditions.

At least 78,124 people were injured across both countries, according to authorities.

The 7.8 magnitude quake struck 23 kilometers (14.2 miles) east of Nurdagi, in Turkey’s Gaziantep province, at a depth of 24.1 kilometers (14.9 miles), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The natural disaster is one of the deadliest earthquakes in two decades.

Here are the latest developments:

• Survivors still being rescued days later in Turkey: A mother and her 6-year-old daughter were rescued from a collapsed house in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaraş Thursday, 68 hours after the massive tremor. German aid organization @fire, working alongside British aid organization SARAID, said that the mother and child were located in the rubble of the collapsed building around 5 a.m. local time on Wednesday. A family of three, including two brothers and their mother, were rescued in the 78th hour in Pazarcik in Kahramanmaras province. And in Hatay province, a 10-year-old girl was found alive in the 90th hour after the quake. The first thing she asked for after her rescue was milk, officials said in a statement. However, the Syria Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, warned that the hope of finding survivors is now fading inside Syria.
• Nations around the world working to get aid to Syria: France on Thursday pledged to give 12 million euros ($12.92 million) to Syrians impacted by the quake, the foreign ministry said. The aid will be channeled through the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations “working directly with affected populations in all of the areas struck by the earthquake,” it said. Many Western nations have refused to send aid directly to the Syrian regime, which is under sanctions. The United Kingdom pledged an additional 3 million pounds ($3.64 million) in funding to the White Helmets to support rescue and emergency relief operations in northwest Syria. Britain has so far given a total of 3.8 million pounds ($4.62 million) to the White Helmets, a volunteer organization of humanitarian responders. The United States will provide $85 million for humanitarian assistance in Turkey and Syria.
• UN working to open more pathways to deliver aid to Syria: A UN aid convoy crossed from Turkey into northwestern Syria on Thursday for the first time since the earthquake hit. The six trucks carrying shelter items and Non-Food Items (NFI) drove through the Bab Al Hawa border crossing, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he is open to the idea of delivering aid via additional border crossings, other than the Bab al-Hawa, which is the only humanitarian aid corridor approved by the United Nations between Turkey and rebel-held areas of northern Syria.
• How you can help: Donate to victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria here.

Syria Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, said they have been working nonstop for more than 90 hours "in very difficult circumstances," to rescue people trapped under rubble following the deadly earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria Monday.

The volunteer organization said they would continue rescue operations in the affected areas of opposition-controlled northern Syria into Friday. However, the organization tweeted a warning that the hope of finding survivors is now "fading." 

The impacted areas include the countryside of Aleppo in northern Syria and the countryside of Idlib in northeastern Syria.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol visited the Turkish embassy in Seoul on Thursday to offer his condolences to the victims of the devastating earthquake that left thousands dead in Turkey and Syria.

“South Korea will do its best to help the people of Turkey to overcome the frustration and sorrow,” Yoon said to the Turkish ambassador, according to the president's spokesperson Lee Do-woon.

Yoon said in addition to the South Korean rescue team that was dispatched to Turkey to aid in the rescue efforts, additional personnel would be sent later for rotation purposes, Lee said.

Turkish Ambassador Murat Tamer thanked South Korea for helping Turkey during difficult times and conveyed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's thanks and regards to Yoon.

The presidential office, including Yoon, gathered and sent 32,610,000 KRW ($25,880) of disaster relief to the Korean National Red Cross for Turkey and Syria, according to the office. 

A team of rescuers from the Ukrainian State Emergency Service has begun its search and rescue operations in Antakya, Turkey, after arriving in the city on Thursday, according to the agency’s Facebook page. 

Images show that the rescuers have set up a tent camp and have started looking for survivors under the rubble in designated areas in Hatay Province. 

This week: The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers announced Tuesday the country planned to send 87 emergency rescue staff to Turkey to assist with relief efforts.

Meanwhile, in Kyiv, people placed flowers and candles at the Turkish Embassy to pay respects to the victims of the earthquake. 

CNN's Kostan Nechyporenko and Lauren Kent contributed reporting to this post.

More than 21,000 people are dead and tens of thousands are injured after a massive earthquake rocked Turkey and Syria on Monday.

The magnitude 7.8 quake was one of the strongest to strike the area in more than a century. Amid severe aftershocks, Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Agency called for international help.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched "immediate cash assistance” from its Disaster Response Emergency Fund to help relief efforts in both countries.

Many other organizations are also on the ground responding. You can help by clicking here.

A 10-year-old girl was found alive in the 90th hour since Turkey's earthquake, according to a statement from the Antalya Metropolitan Fire Department on Thursday. The first thing she asked for after her rescue was milk, the statement said.

Hilal Sağlam was trapped underneath the rubble of a building located in the Hatay province. The rescue team "heard the sound from under the rubble" and were able to rescue Sağlam "as a result of a meticulous 7-hour work in the wreckage," the statement added,

"The injured girl, who was taken to the stretcher with great joy and applause, was sent to the hospital for treatment by ambulance," the fire department said.