Desperate pleas have been made to help hundreds of thousands of people left homeless after the devastating earthquake battering Turkey and Syria, as the official death toll passed 19,000.
Daniel Craig and Tamsin Greig have fronted new televised fundraising appeals by the Disasters Emergency Committee, with Sir Michael Palin presenting radio adverts.
And aid workers on the ground told of terrified families sleeping on the streets in below-freezing conditions, with infections spreading while many people remained trapped beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings.
The British government has agreed to match donations of up to £5million to the appeal launched by the DEC, an alliance of 15 charities.
Rescues were continuing with two-year-old boy was picked out of the rubble by a Romanian and Polish rescue team in Hatay 79 hours after the Monday’s 7.8-magnitude quake.
The boy, wearing a striped sweater, cried as he was gently lifted from the hole where he had been trapped.
But recovery efforts have been hampered by freezing weather and dozens of aftershocks, as well as already-damaged infrastructure and blocked aid corridors in civil war-torn Syria.
British Red Cross regional manager Jeremy Smith described the aftermath of the disaster as ‘a crisis within a crisis’, while Islamic Relief’s Salah Aboulgasem - speaking from the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, the earthquake’s epicentre - said the scale of suffering felt ‘unprecedented’.
Syria’s suffering comes amid a 12-year civil war following President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown in pro-democracy demonstrators, as well as surging prices, the cold winter and a recent cholera epidemic.
DEC chief executive Saleh Saeed said: ‘Sadly hundreds of thousands have lost their homes and need shelter.
‘The scale of the damage is hard to imagine, with thousands of buildings reduced to rubble, in a region where millions of people have already been forced to flee the war in Syria.
‘Donations from the British public will make a huge difference in enabling DEC charities to reach more people.
‘We know it’s a difficult time for all of us but we’re urging everyone to give as much as they can.’
Mr Aboulgasem told of how people were in Gaziantep were spooked three days on by more aftershock tremors.
Survivors were also reluctant to stay in makeshift bases such as sports centres, mosques or schools, he added - preferring instead to sleep in their cars or even in the streets, despite the cold weather.
He said: ‘I’ve been to many disaster zones and many war zones and I have to say the size and scale of this is unprecedented.
‘In one town 70 per cent of buildings have been completely destroyed and search and rescue operations are going on everywhere you look.
‘We’re using sports centres, schools and mosques as shelters but people are refusing, because of the psychological impact of what’s happened - they’re choosing to remain in the streets, burning fires, or sleeping in their cars.’
In Syria, Unicef’s Eva Hinds told how people were taking overnight refuge in schools - many of which have been closed to pupils for years during the ongoing civil war.
She told Metro: ‘This is the most powerful earthquake there’s been in the region for years and it’s come at the worst possible time.
‘It’s been nearly 12 years of conflict, with many children displaced from one home to another numerous times - prices are rocketing, there are fuel shortages and electricity shortages, and on top of that is the impact of Covid and, just before the earthquake, a cholera epidemic.’
She highlighted how 15.3million people across Syria already needed humanitarian aid, including 7million children.
She added: ‘What makes it more challenging is how it’s very cold - it’s rainy, there’s been snow- really adding to the suffering of people who’ve had to leave their homes and need shelter.
‘If ever there was a moment in time when the children of Syria needed help, that moment is now - it’s critical they are supported in many ways by different parts of the world.
‘They were struggling terribly before but the struggle has just got worse.’
Meanwhile, Mr Smith said more than 2,000 tents and 500,000 meals had been provided by Red Crescent teams, adding: ‘It’s a crisis within a crisis. Syria had a winter storm the week before this happened.
‘This is not going to be a matter of weeks or months - it will be a multiple-year long-term recovery.
‘And this is why we need people to give generously because people are going to have lifelong injuries and psychological issues, losing their livelihoods, and so we need to make sure that we’re set up to support people in the long term.’
To donate to the DEC appeal, go to www.dec.org.uk or www.donation.dec.org.uk/turkey-syria-earthquake-appeal.
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