Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan visited the south of the country on Wednesday (8) to check out the destruction caused by a strong earthquake. Meanwhile, anger is rising among the local population over what they said was the government’s slow response to the rescue and relief effort. The combined number of confirmed deaths from the earthquake, which occurred on Monday (6) and hit a swath of southern Turkey and neighboring Syria, has risen to more than 11,000 people. The count is expected to rise as hundreds of collapsed buildings in many cities became graves for people sleeping in their homes when the quake struck in the early morning. Rescue dissatisfaction In the Turkish city of Antakya, dozens of bodies, some wrapped in blankets and sheets and others in body bags, were lined up on the ground outside a hospital. “My wife doesn’t speak Turkish and I can’t see very well,” said one man, who declined to be identified. “We have to check all the faces. We need help.” Families in southern Turkey and Syria spent a second night in the freezing cold as rescuers tried to pull people out of the rubble. Many in the disaster area slept in their cars or on the streets under blankets, afraid to return to buildings shaken by the 7.8 magnitude quake – Turkey’s deadliest since 1999 – and a second strong quake hours later. “Where are the tents, where is the food?” said Melek, 64, in Antakya, who had not seen any rescue workers. “We have not seen any food distributions here, unlike previous disasters in our country. We survived the earthquake, but we will die here due to hunger or cold.” The death toll has surpassed 8,500 in Turkey. In Syria, already ravaged by 11 years of war, the confirmed number rose to more than 2,500 overnight, according to the Syrian government and a rescue service operating in the rebel-held northwest. Election impact Erdogan, who declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces and sent troops to help, arrived in the city of Kahramanmaras to see the damage and the rescue and relief effort. Speaking to reporters, with constant ambulance sirens in the background, Erdogan said there were problems with roads and airports, but that things would get better by the day. The disaster poses a new challenge for him in the election he faces in May, which would already be the toughest of his two decades in power. Any perception that the government is not handling the disaster properly could hurt Erdogan’s prospects in the vote, but analysts say he could otherwise rally national support around the crisis response and strengthen his position. *Reproduction of this content is prohibited
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