hello and welcome to BBC World News seven days after powerful twin earthquakes Turkish rescue workers say some survivors are still being pulled from the rubble of collapsed buildings but the number of confirmed deaths has now risen above 37 000 and it’s expected that the final total will be much higher United Nations officials say the relief effort is now being focused on caring for the homeless our chief International correspondent Liz dusette is close to the quake’s epicenter in southern turkey foreign just an ordinary Street until last Monday 4 17 A.M everything shook the strongest earthquake in a century smashing life as they knew it says almost nothing left almost here waiting on garden chairs in front row seats a street turned into a cemetery their loved ones buried somewhere in this Rubble scenes are absolutely breathtaking but it’s also what what we can’t convey it’s the the dust and the stench the stench of deaths so many bodies buried under the rubble right now they are pulling your body out might be my brother or it might be someone else they’ll bring the body out and we will identify it quad waits for the bodies of everyone in his family who lived here 40 people in all did you ever fear that you’d see a day like this one week on the body bags keep coming out time killing a family’s prayer her loved one was still alive the un’s top eight official praised this rescue effort more than 100 countries sent help but there is concern about what’s yet to come the biggest fear now is when the awful day comes when we learn how many people really died and the speculation as you know is is frightening and just to think that under those mountains of rubble could be these many many people who are now dead so many are asking did so many have to die turkey’s President erdogan says they couldn’t prepare for a Calamity like this but this woman insists that herster could have been saved only one politician came here and showed his face where are the rest I’ve been here since the first day I dug people out with my bare hands Builders are being blamed too some structures collapsed and others didn’t this is our faith says this life is a test we believe that our lessons here for everyone we will be stronger after this one week on the hope of finding anyone alive here has all but faded and yet so many we meet don’t just hope they believe their loved ones are still alive somewhere under this Rubble president erdogan is promising everyone a new home within a year that’s optimistic it is the memory of everyone and everything that was here that will live on in those who survive it’s rescue turns to there will also be a reckoning for this wrecking of so many lives at least to set BBC News caraman marash Syria’s president Bashar al-assad has told U.N officials he’ll open two more border crossings so emergency aid can enter from neighboring turkey after the devastating earthquakes there last week as the death toll continues to rise it’s also feared that up to 5 million may have been made homeless in Syria alone the situation is complicated by the ongoing Civil War there with parts of the country controlled by Rebel Fighters our correspondent Laura bicker reports from antakia close to the Syrian border oh my God there’s a moment of disbelief at seeing light then comes the smile The Joy at knowing he’s free after 50 hours in crushing concrete God is great the crowd chants as they celebrate saving three-year-old Karam in idlib last week his father shielded him from the rubble but with so few Rescuers on the ground in Syria both Lee helpless as their mother and sister fell silent and died next week after a while my wife stopped talking Quran and I were still there I was in a kneeling down position I was kneeling over Quran and the rubble was up to my legs it was all taking too long the focus is now on keeping the living alive survivors have little choice but to find whatever shelter they can within the Fallen buildings we now live on the streets we stay there and when we feel we’re falling asleep we get in the car that we covered that’s where we sleep not fully delivered after leaving turkey the United Nations Aid Chief Martin Griffiths toured Aleppo in Syria and said help is coming but the UN has to find new routes over the Border if it’s to meet the mounting needs of Millions [Music] this Hospital in Northern Syria filmed by BBC Arabic has had to carry out multiple amputations on children with very little equipment more than three and a half million citians came to Turkey to escape the hotters of war in antakia their hopes that this would be a safe home have been destroyed and although this Camp is getting some help from the UK charity refugees key supplies are still short after a decade of trying to lift themselves out of grinding poverty these families are having to start again it’s a daily struggle she tells me if I’m working we are eating if not we’re dependent on the charity of random people life has become expensive and the Dignity of those who’ve had to leave their homes has been affected our people have been decimated as dusk brings freezing temperatures these families can only hope that Don will bring them the strength to build their lives again Laura Becker BBC News in antakia on the turkey Syria border well let’s get some more on the aftermath of the Quake inside turkey from the BBC’s Caroline Davies who joins us live from iskandar Carrie we can see wreckage behind you tell us more about where you are and what you’re seeing Celia this used to be the Intensive Care Unit of one of the hospitals here in escandarin and as you can see behind me it is now about a four meter pile of rubble this was in amongst there you can see maybe bits of pink paper of white paper those are medical documents we also can see surgical gloves there are there are parts of ambulance beds hospital beds and we know from The Rescuers here that they believe there are about 300 people that were in the hospital at the time when the earthquake hit that be a mixture of patients of medical staff or visitors as well and they’re not entirely certain how many of those people made it out there is still an attempt at a rescue effort here we’ve spoken to people three different families who say that there are three nurses that they believe are still inside at the moment but they of course are not certain whether or not they will have survived it is now over a week on and there has been heavy machinery here throughout the morning that we’ve been here trying to move some of this Rubble away a but it is just an incredibly difficult and very precarious task trying to find anyone who might still be inside Kerry one week on are you seeing any kind of pattern emerging between the buildings that didn’t sustain very much damage and those that have collapsed entirely I think it’s a really good question because when you walk around different cities particularly as you get closer to the epicenter it is not the case that every single building has collapsed some are still standing with cracked in some might have partially subsided and some like this Hospital unit have been completely destroyed standing just behind me this is part of the other part of the hospital that was a more modern part according to people who live here this was an older part that had been renovated and now just to be entirely clear about what we’ve seen this morning we have seen a report on this Hospital from the health on the health Ministries website it’s from 2012 and it says that the earthquake report for this building came back negative now that was in 2012 over 10 years ago people here have been sharing that report and have been getting increasingly angry at the fact that this was known according to this report to not be a building that could withstand an earthquake that this was something that had already been flagged over a decade ago and and yet now there are many many lives that have been lost in the rubble here people who have families are still waiting hoping that there might be some some form of news but there is real anger growing that there were certain things that had been flagged up in cases like this but nothing had necessarily been done speaking of anger we’re also hearing of discontent among some in Turkey who are saying that they don’t think that Aid is being distributed equally are you hearing anything about that I think that there are certain areas that seem to have managed to get sort of International Rescue efforts but yes as people have been talking to us some people feel that um that they haven’t seen enough Aid reaching them that many people here for example had said that they had in fact they they say claimed that they paid for these construction manufacturers these Machinery to come in to try to help with the rescue effort they said that they hadn’t seen people coming to help from authorities either now as I’ve been driving through and walking through these different areas in these different cities you can see that there is Aid you can see that there are the presence of the Turkish authorities here there are Vans that are giving out food there are temporary shelters that are being put up but some people feel that they have not had enough support and of course we are now over a week on many people have spent that amount of time living outside in these tents with freezing conditions and many are asking now what happens next where do we go to what can we do when we are still not uh we still don’t mind not have homes to go to but those buildings that are still standing people feel very nervous about going back into them because they don’t know whether or not they will be safe and I think there are many questions about what happens next okay Caroline Davies thank you so much for speaking to us from iskendran in Turkey.
