Earthquake

"On Saturday evening, earthquake relief material and equipment were sent to Syria and Turkey onboard another IAF C-17 aircraft. After offloading relief material at Damascus, the flight will head towards Adana," said a MEA official. "Flight is carrying 35 tonnes of humanitarian assistance, relief material, medical aid, emergency & critical care medicines, medical equipment and consumables," said the official.

"What happened here on Monday, the epicentre of the earthquake, was the worst event in 100 years in this region," Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, told reporters in the Turkish province of Kahramanmaras on Saturday. More than 100 countries have sent emergency response teams to Turkey, but "we're going to need more than that," Griffiths said.

With elections on the horizon, his future is on the line after 20 years in power and his pleas for national unity have gone unheeded, BBC reported .Erdogan has admitted shortcomings in the response, but he appeared to blame fate on a visit to one disaster zone: "Such things have always happened. It's part of destiny's plan."Turkey lies on two fault lines.

The death toll from the earthquakes climbed to 17,674 in Turkey, with 72,879 injuries, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Thursday. In Syria, 1,678 people were killed in government-held areas, and the death toll in the opposition-held region stood at 2,190, according to media reports. A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Turkey's southern province of Kahramanmaras at 4:17 a.m. local time.

In its latest update on Thursday, Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD) said the death toll currently stood at 12,873, while the number of injured persons shot up to 62,937, reports Anadolu News Agency. The victims and the widespread damages have been reported from the 10 regions of Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir.

In its latest update, Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) said the overall death toll currently stood at 7,108, while the number of injured persons increased to 40,910, reports Anadolu News Agency.More than 96,670 search and rescue teams are currently conducting operations in the field, the AFAD said.

In a separate briefing, an official from the country's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) Orhan Tatar said that some 11,000 buildings were damaged and added that nearly 25,000 emergency responders are currently working at the affected areas.

The death toll in Turkey has risen again to 1,498, according to the country's disaster management agency, and 810 in Syria, the BBC reported. The 7.8 magnitude quake struck near Turkey's Gaziantep early on Monday (local time) while a new 7.5-magnitude tremor hit at around 1.30 p.m. local time and was described, by officials, as a new quake, "not an aftershock".

The epicentre of the second quake, which a Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority official said it was "not an aftershock" and "independent", was in Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras province, around 150 km north of Gaziantep, which was the epicentre of the morning quake.

The US Geological Survey said the tremor occurred at 4.17 a.m. at a depth of 17.9 km near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, reports the BBC reported. Addressing reporters, Turkey's Interior Minister Suleymon Soylu said the 10 cities of Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Hatay, Osmaniye, Adiyaman, Malatya, Sanliurfa, Adana, Diyarbakir and Kilis were affected.