Focus turns to survivors as Türkiye-Syria quake toll passes 35,000

KAHRAMANMARAS - Among the rubble, hundreds of thousands of homeless people face cold and hunger as authorities in Türkiye and Syria tackle the dire humanitarian disaster caused by the earthquake that has left more than 35,000 dead.

As hopes of finding people alive under the debris fade more than a week after the quake struck, the focus has switched to providing food and shelter to the vast numbers of survivors.

According to the Turkish government, about 1.2 million people have been housed in student residences, more than 206,000 tents have been erected and 400,000 victims evacuated from the devastated areas.

READ: Türkiye-Syria quake toll rises above 35,000

Türkiye's Vice President Fuat Oktay said 574 children pulled from collapsed buildings were found without any surviving parents.

Only 76 had been returned to other family members.

One voluntary psychologist working in a children's support centre in hard-hit Hatay province said numerous parents were frantically looking for missing kids.

READ: Miracle rescues a week after Türkiye-Syria quake

"We receive a barrage of calls about missing children," Hatice Goz said by phone.

"But if the child still cannot speak, the family is unable to find them."

In the devastated Turkish city of Antakya, clean-up teams have been shifting rubble and putting up basic toilets as the telephone network started to come back in parts of the town, an AFP reporter said.

READ: 'Are we going to die?': Trauma haunts Turkish kids after quake

The city was patrolled by police and soldiers deployed to prevent looting following several incidents over the weekend.

"Send any stuff you can because there are millions of people here and they all need to be fed," Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu appealed late Sunday.

In Antakya and Kahramanmaras, food and other aid supplies were flowing in, AFP teams reported.

The economic cost of the disaster could be as much as $84.1-billion, with nearly $71-billion of that for housing, Turkish employers' association Turkonfed said in a report Monday.