Türkiye, Syria quake toll tops 16,000 as cold compounds misery

ANTAKYA - Freezing temperatures deepened the misery for survivors of a massive earthquake in Turkey and Syria that killed more than 16,000 people, as rescuers raced to save countless people still trapped under rubble.

The death toll from Monday's 7.8-magnitude quake is expected to rise sharply as rescue efforts pass the 72-hour mark that disaster experts consider the most likely period to save lives.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan conceded "shortcomings" after criticism of his government's response to the earthquake, one of the deadliest this century.

READ: Turkish leader admits 'shortcomings' as quake toll tops 15,000

Survivors have been left to scramble for food and shelter -- and in some cases watch helplessly as their relatives called for rescue, and eventually went silent under the debris.

Twitter access returned on Thursday morning after the social network did not work on Turkish mobile networks for several hours Wednesday, according to AFP journalists and the NetBlocks web monitoring group.

READ: More survivors found as Türkiye-Syria quake toll tops 11,200

Turkish officials had held talks with Twitter leaders after which deputy infrastructure minister Omer Fatih Sayan tweeted on Thursday that Turkey expected the social network to cooperate more in the "fight against disinformation".

Temperatures plunged to minus-five degrees Celsius in Gaziantep early Thursday, but the cold did not stop thousands of families from spending the night in cars and makeshift tents, too scared to stay in their homes or prohibited from returning to them.

Officials and medics said 12,873 people had died in Turkey and at least 3,162 in neighbouring Syria from Monday's quake, bringing the total to 16,035. Experts fear the number will continue to rise sharply.