Turkey-Syria Earthquake: Death toll from earthquake in Syria-Turkey crosses 11,000

The death toll from the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria has crossed 11,000. Citing officials, Reuters reported that 10,000 people have lost their lives so far due to the earthquake. As a result, families in southern Turkey and Syria spent a second night of bitter cold on Wednesday. Dozens of bodies, some covered in blankets and sheets, lay on the ground outside a hospital in Hatay province in Turkey. Many people in the disaster area slept in their cars or on the streets under blankets.

The number of injured exceeded 38,000

Rescuers in neighboring Syria warned the death toll would continue to rise as some said help had not yet arrived. Where are the tents, where are the food trucks? Speaking to Reuters, Melek, 64, from the southern Turkish city of Antioch, said he had not seen any rescuers. We have not seen any food distribution here unlike previous disasters in our country. We survived the earthquake, but we will die of hunger or cold here. 

Erdoğan is expected to visit the affected areas

The death toll from this disaster in Turkey has crossed 7,100. The death toll in Syria, devastated by 11 years of war, has risen to 2,500 overnight, according to a rescue service operating in the Syrian government and rebel-held northwest. Turkish President Tayyab Erdoğan has declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces.

But residents of several Turkish cities have expressed anger and frustration at the slow and inadequate response of the authorities. Erdoğan is expected to visit some of the affected areas ahead of elections in May. 

The earthquake brought down thousands of buildings, including hospitals, schools and apartment blocks, injured thousands, and left countless people homeless in Turkey and northern Syria.

Turkish officials say 13.5 million people from Adana to the west were affected, compared to the distance between Boston and Philadelphia or Amsterdam and Paris. 

Turkey's disaster management agency said the number of injured was more than 38,000. Rescue workers and residents said dozens of buildings had collapsed under the rubble in the northern Syrian town of Jandaris.

People standing around the wreckage of the building said they did not see anyone alive. Rescue efforts were hampered by a lack of heavy equipment to remove the large concrete slabs.

Rescue workers have struggled to reach some of the worst affected areas by bad roads, inclement weather and a lack of resources and heavy equipment. There is no electricity and fuel in some areas. Aid officials have expressed particular concern about the situation in Syria, where humanitarian needs are already low. 

A rescue service operating in Syria's rebel-held northwest said the death toll had risen to 1,280 and more than 2,600 wounded. The rescue service said on Twitter that the number was expected to rise due to the presence of hundreds of families in the rubble for more than 50 hours after the quake.

The Syrian health minister said the death toll in the government-held region had risen to 1,250. He told that the number of dead is 2,054.

Turkey's deadliest earthquake has thrown Erdoğan a huge rescue and reconstruction challenge, which will already prove the toughest of his two decades in office in the run up to the May election. 

The vote will determine how Turkey is governed, where its economy is headed, and what role regional powers and NATO members can play in easing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, according to polls conducted before the earthquake.