Turkey and Syria earthquake: death toll passes 11,000 as anger grows over official response – latest updates

Faisal Ali has spoken for the Guardian to a geologist based in the region affected by the quake:

It is difficult to tell how long aftershocks will last after Monday’s quake, says Kenan Akbayram, a geologist at the University of Bingöl, whose city was badly affected by the event. But by employing “aftershock forecasts” he says – a technique that relies on observations from prior earthquakes – it is possible to make rough predictions.

“In the past powerful earthquakes have caused aftershocks for two or three years,” says Akbayram, adding that the 2020 earthquake in the eastern city of Elazig, which registered at a magnitude of over 6, still has its own aftershock sequences which his team of scientists have observed.

Akbayram says that the earthquake was not unexpected. “We were expecting a rupture along the fault lines in this area,” he says, as the areas where the earthquake struck are what geologists refer to as a seismic gap.

A seismic gap is an area in an active earthquake zone that has not witnessed the expected earthquakes. This part of the eastern Anatolian fault zone was ruptured in the 1500s according to records, and more recently some parts of the fault zone moved in 1822, says Akbayram, “so there was a risk of possible movement and we were aware of it.”

Akbayram warns that there are other fault zones in Turkey which haven’t experienced seismic activity for a long time, identifying the Aegean region, areas around the Marmara sea which includes the major cities of Bursa and Istanbul, and the city of Bingöl where he is based. “We in the scientific community are aware of these seismic gaps, but I cannot say that we are ready from an engineering perspective.”

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has announced that the death toll from Monday’s quake has reached 8,754. Combined with the 2,470 known deaths in Syria, that brings the total official death toll to 11,224.

The World Health Organization has suggested the final toll could rise as high as 20,000. A similar-sized earthquake in the region in 1999 killed at least 17,000 people.

Reuters reports that, speaking to reporters in the Kahramanmaraş province near the epicentre of the earthquake, with constant ambulance sirens in the background, Erdoğan said there had been problems with roads and airports but that everything would get better by the day.

He also said citizens should only heed communication from authorities and ignore “provocateurs,” as thousands of people complain about the lack of resources and slow response by officials. Turkish police have detained several people over their social media posts about the earthquake.

Syria has activated the EU civil protection mechanism two days after the earthquake, the European Commission’s head of crisis management Janez Lenarcic said on Wednesday.

“Earlier today, this morning, we have received a request from the government of Syria for assistance through the civil protection mechanism,” Reuters reports Lenarcic told the media.

Lenarcic said member states are encouraged to contribute with assistance as requested.

In October 2001, the European Commission established the EU civil protection mechanism. When an emergency overwhelms the response capabilities of a country in Europe and beyond, it can request assistance from the programme.

In addition to the 27 EU member states, there are currently eight other participating states (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, and Turkey). The European Commission’s website say that since its inception, the mechanism has responded to over 600 requests for assistance inside and outside the EU.

A container blaze at Turkey’s southern port of Iskenderun has been brought under control, Turkey’s maritime authority said on Wednesday, following combined extinguishing efforts from land, sea and air.

Operations at the port were shut down until further notice after a fire broke out due to the earthquakes that hit the region on Monday, and freighters were diverted to other ports.

A source from the port told Reuters the flames had not spread to the area where flammable materials were stored, and that the nature of the fire, which has unleashed a huge cloud of black smoke over the city, was still unclear.

“We are suspecting it is plastic raw material or chemical but we could not clearly determine it as the containers collapsed and scattered,” the source said.

Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us from Turkey over the news wires

Pope Francis offered his prayers for the thousands of victims of the earthquake in Syria and Turkey and called on the international community to continue to support rescue and recovery efforts.

“I am praying for them with emotion and I wanted to say that I am close to these people, to the families of the victims and everyone who is suffering from this devastating disaster,” he said, Reuters reports.

“I thank those who are offering help and encourage everyone to show solidarity with these countries, some of which have already been battered by a long war,” he added at the end of his weekly audience in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican on Wednesday.

Cold weather continues to be expected in the region struck by Monday’s quake. The BBC’s Turkish language service reports that Turkey’s meteorological service has predicted minimum and maximum temperatures for Kahramanmaraş today as -6C and 1C (21-34F), and for Gaziantep between -5C and 1C (23-34F). Diyarbakır is expected to have continued snowfall, with temperatures climbing to 2C (35F) at most.

The White Helmets in Syria, who have been conducting rescue operations in the rebel-held north-west of the civil war-wracked country have posted to social media to state that four of their volunteers and their families are among the victims of the quake there.

This aerial drone footage taken over the Turkish city of Kahramanmaraş shows the scale of destruction two days after the quake shook south-east Turkey. Buildings can be seen in the footage reduced to just debris and collapsed concrete mounds.

Some families have been forced to try to shelter in the streets in Turkey, while others have been lucky enough to find trains or state buildings to use as temporary accommodation.