Death toll surpasses 22,000 despite dramatic rescues

(ALJAZEERA) — The earthquake death toll in Turkey and Syria has crossed 22,000.

Turkish President Erdogan said Friday death toll in Turkey had risen to 18,991.

The Syrian Civil Defence, or White Helmets, said that at least 2,037 people had died in opposition held areas. At least 1,340 have died in government-controlled areas of Syria, according to officials.

Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker, reporting from the Turkish city of Gaziantep, says it is difficult to capture the scale of the damage.

“Once you’re driving, and you’re passing towns and cities and villages, and you see pretty much everything destroyed along the way. It’s very difficult to comprehend,” Dekker said.

“And the other thing about this tragedy is that entire families have been lost,” she added.

“We were talking to a woman here. She said ‘I have four of my brothers, my mother, my cousins’ and all of her nieces and nephews … all gone in an instant when the building just completely pancaked upon itself.”

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said 14 trucks carrying humanitarian aid crossed into northwestern Syria from Turkey.

“These convoys are carrying electric heaters, tents, blankets and other items to assist these people who have been displaced as a result of this catastrophic earthquake,” said spokesperson Paul Dillon, adding that the aid was bound for Idlib.

Opposition-held northwest Syria is home to nearly two million internally displaced refugees.

However, Turkish authorities’ response to the massive earthquakes in the country’s south is not as fast as the government wanted, President Tayyip Erdogan has said.

“So many buildings were damaged that unfortunately, we were not able to speed up our interventions as quickly as we had desired,” Erdogan said during a visit to the hard-hit southern city of Adiyaman.

The statement came a day after Erdogan conceded there had been “shortcomings” in the government’s handling of the disaster.

Erdogan added that some people were robbing markets and targeting businesses in the wake of the attack. He said a state of emergency declared in the hard hit areas would allow the government to quickly penalise those responsible.