Hope for finging survivors dims as Turkiye-Syria quake toll passes 35,000

A week after an earthquake devastated parts of Turkey and Syria, leaving more than 35,000 dead and millions in desperate need of aid, rescue teams started to wind down their search for survivors on Monday.

Seven days after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, attention has shifted to aiding famished survivors who lack food and shelter, but reports of people discovered alive in the rubble continue to surface. According to Turkish media, a 12-year-old boy named Kaan was rescued from the rubble in southern Hatay on Monday, 182 hours after the fifth-deadliest earthquake of the twenty-first century. However, experts warn that chances of finding survivors are dwindling. Officials and medical personnel reported that 31,643 people had died in Turkiye and at least 3,581 others, bringing the overall death toll to 35,224.

The death toll is expected to increase significantly, according to the UN. The United Nations has lamented the failure to deliver urgently required aid to Syria’s war-torn regions and warned that the death toll is expected to increase even further as experts warn that the chances of finding survivors dwindle with each passing day. Suleyman Soylu, the interior minister of Turkey, pleaded with Turks late Sunday, “Send any stuff you can because there are millions of people here and they all need to be fed.” He said that 30,000 tents have been set up in Kahramanmaras, close to the epicenter, and that 48,000 people are finding shelter in schools and another 11,500 in athletic facilities. Although hundreds of rescue teams were still at work, efforts in seven regions of the province had come to an end.