Turkey-Syria earthquake LIVE UPDATES: Rescuers pulled out children from the rubble of the Turkey-Syria earthquake as the toll crossed 24,000, reported The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH). The confirmed death toll from the deadliest quake in the region in two decades stood at more than 24,000 across southern Turkey and northwest Syria four days after it hit. The stench of death hung over Turkey’s eastern city of Kahramanmaras- the epicentre of the first 7.8-magnitude tremor that upturned millions of lives in the pre-dawn hours of Monday. It is located in a remote region filled with people already displaced by war, reported France24. Meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said authorities should have reacted faster to this week’s huge earthquake. Erdogan on Friday visited Turkey’s Adiyaman province, where he acknowledged the government’s response was not as fast as it could have been. “Although we have the largest search and rescue team in the world right now, it is a reality that search efforts are not as fast as we wanted them to be,” he said. Erdogan is standing for re-election in a vote scheduled for May 14 and his opponents have seized upon the issue to attack him. The election may now be postponed due to the disaster.

Latest World News