Earthquake survivors erupted in cheers as civil defense officers rescued a family from the rubble of a collapsed building in Harem, Syria.
RELATED: Footage shows buildings collapse in Syria, Turkey after 7.8-magnitude earthquake https://bit.ly/3HO7Esa
The search for survivors grew more desperate, the homeless problem more acute and the death toll rose sharply Wednesday as rescuers labored to find signs of life amid the rubble of Monday’s earthquakes and aftershocks that laid waste to a wide swath of Turkey and Syria.
Turkey’s disaster management agency said the country’s death toll passed 8,500. The Syrian Health Ministry placed the toll in government-held areas at more than 1,200, and at least 1,400 people have died in the rebel-held northwest, according to the White Helmets volunteer agency.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday inspected relief efforts in Kahramanmaras province, where the two powerful quakes and aftershocks were centered. Damage was spread over at least nine other provinces, affecting more than 13 million of his nation’s 86 million people.
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