Death toll tops 20,000 in Turkey, Syria quake
The death toll from the massive earthquake in Turkey and Syria kept on climbing on Thursday, topping 20,000 as the first UN aid reached Syrian rebel-held zones but hopes of finding more survivors faded. Bitter cold has hampered the four-day search of thousands of flattened buildings and threatened the lives of many quake victims who are without shelter and drinking water. Relatives were left scouring body bags laid out in a hospital car park in Turkey's southern city of Antakya to search for missing relatives, an indication of the scale of the tragedy. "We found my aunt, but not my uncle," said Rania Zaboubi, a Syrian refugee who lost eight members of her family as other survivors sought loved ones' bodies. Chances of finding survivors have dimmed now that the 72-hour mark that experts consider the most likely period to save lives has passed. The 7.8-magnitude quake struck as people slept early on Monday in a region where many had already suffered loss and displacement due to Syria's civil war. But in a potentially life-saving development, an aid convoy reached rebel-held northwestern Syria on Thursday, the first since the quake, an official at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing said. The crossing is the only way UN assistance can reach civilians without going through areas controlled by Syrian government forces. A decade of civil war and Syrian-Russian aerial bombardment had already destroyed hospitals, collapsed the economy and prompted electricity, fuel and water shortages. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday urged the Security Council to authorise the opening of new cross-border humanitarian aid points between Turkey and Syria to deliver aid. Four million people living in the rebel-held areas of northwest Syria have had to rely on the only Bab al-Hawa crossing as part of a cross-border aid operation authorised by the Security Council nearly a decade ago. "This is the moment of unity, it's not a moment to politicise or to divide but it is obvious that we need massive support," Guterres said. Dozens of nations, including China and the United States have pledged to help, and search teams as well as relief supplies have already arrived. In addition to a staggering human toll, the quake's economic cost appears likely to exceed US$2 billion and could reach US$4 billion or more, Fitch Ratings said. (AFP)