Turkey-Syria death toll tops that of devastating 1999 quake

The total death toll from this week’s earthquake in southeastern Turkey has exceeded that of the devastating İzmit quake in 1999, underlining the scale of the unfolding disaster as rescue workers continued to pull bodies from the rubble.

More than 17,500 people have died in Turkey and neighbouring Syria, according to the latest figures released on Thursday by authorities in the affected area. This takes the tally of deaths above the 17,118 recorded for the huge quake that ravaged north-western Turkey almost 25 years ago.

The quake in İzmit, about 70 miles from Istanbul, carries particular resonance in Turkey as it is the worst in many people’s living memory. A massive earthquake in 1939 that struck Erzincan in the east of the country killed nearly 33,000.

The turmoil of 1999 also sparked a national conversation in Turkey about building standards, which has been inflamed this week as seismologists and engineers say the loss of life has been significantly worsened due to the low quality of construction in the affected area.

On Thursday in sub-zero temperatures, rescuers were racing to find people buried in the rubble as the chance of survival narrowed. In the badly hit Turkish province of Hatay, an international team pulled a girl and her father from a flattened apartment block just before 7am local time as news channels broadcast the rescue live.

In a sign of progress in assisting Syrian rescue efforts, a UN convoy of six trucks on Thursday entered from Turkey through the Bab al-Hawa crossing, the first UN aid shipment into war-ravaged northern Syria since the quake struck.

The crossing, which is a vital lifeline to 4mn people in Syria’s Idlib province, one of the last remaining enclaves for the opposition that fought Bashar al-Assad’s regime during a 12-year civil war, had been closed because of damage to roads and other infrastructure.

​​Still, the rescue efforts remained fraught in both countries as the death toll continued to rise. The number of deaths in Turkey reached 14,351 while in Syria at least 3,162 people have died, according to the government and volunteer rescuers in opposition-held areas.

The destruction in Turkey spans more than 300 miles and 10 provinces, severely complicating the rescue effort. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used a speech from the disaster area on Thursday to hit out again at critics of the government’s handling of Monday’s earthquake, which measured 7.8 magnitude and was followed by another large 7.5 magnitude tremor.

Speaking in the city of Gaziantep, not far from the epicentre, Erdoğan said there were “people who are trying to turn the process into [their] political advantage . . . My people, my citizens will never allow this abuse.”

Erdoğan’s remarks come as opposition parties and some in the affected areas have sharply criticised the government’s response to the quake as too slow and disorganised. The Germany-based Media Freedom Rapid Response said a photojournalist taking pictures in the earthquake zone and a media commentator in Istanbul were detained this week.

Turkish police have detained 31 people, nine of whom were remanded to custody, for “sharing provocative posts that aimed to frighten and panic citizens on social media platforms”, according to a statement from the national police agency posted on Twitter.

Turkey warned Twitter on Wednesday it was responsible for curbing disinformation on its platform. Access to the social media website was blocked for several hours on Wednesday.

Erdoğan, who in May faces his toughest election in two decades in power, has insisted in speeches over recent days that his government has done everything it could to limit the fallout from the earthquake. “Since the moment of the quake . . . the state, with all of our institutions, [were] in the field,” he said on Thursday.

Additional reporting by Andrew England in London