The death toll from this week’s earthquakes in Turkey and Syria approached 16,000 on Thursday as irritation grew over the delayed assistance delivery and optimism that many survivors would be discovered 72 hours after the tragedy.
The incident, according to a Turkish official, poses “extremely serious issues” for the May 14 election, in which President Tayyip Erdogan is anticipated to face the toughest opposition in his 20 years in office.
In Turkey and Syria, a large number of people spent a third night sleeping outside or in automobiles in the frigid winter weather since their homes had been demolished or were so shook by the earthquakes that they were too terrified to go back inside.
It is expected that the earthquake, which occurred in the middle of the night and was followed by strong aftershocks, will be Turkey’s deadliest since 1999, when a tremor of a similar magnitude claimed more than 17,000 lives.
Video of a few more survivors being rescued in Turkey surfaced late on Wednesday. One of them was Abdulalim Muaini, who was taken from his collapsed home in Hatay, Turkey, where he had been staying since Monday next to his dead wife.
