Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan announced a three-month emergency in 10 provinces affected by earthquakes on Tuesday. The provinces were declared as disaster zone.
Reuters quoted Erdogan saying that 70 countries had offered aid in search and rescue operations and the country planned to open up hotels in the tourism hub of Antalya, to the west, to temporarily house people impacted by the quakes.
Authorities in Turkey and Syria confirmed that the death toll has crossed over 5,000. Erdogan said the death toll from the earthquakes centred in southeastern Turkey rose to 3,549.
Attempts to reach survivors were also impeded by temperatures below freezing and close to 200 aftershocks, which made the search through unstable structures perilous.
Al Jazeera reported that UNESCO has warned several World Heritage Sites — identified by the United Nations agency for their cultural, historical, scientific and other forms of significance — might have been damaged. Historical monuments in Turkey and Syria which had survived wars and natural disasters for centuries have also been destroyed, or damaged, by the deadly earthquakes, the publication reported.
