The likelihood of finding survivors of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, one of the worst shocks in decades, which has killed nearly 17,500 people, was dwindling on Thursday.
The four-day search of thousands of destroyed buildings has been impeded by the bitter weather, and the 72-hour window that experts believe is the most likely to result in lifesaving rescues has passed.
As a sign of the tragedy’s scope, relatives were left searching among corpse bags spread out in a hospital parking lot in Antakya, Turkey, for missing family members.
“We found my aunt, but not my uncle,” said Rania Zaboubi, a Syrian refugee who lost eight members of her family, as other survivors sought loved ones’ bodies among the corpses.
The 7.8-magnitude earthquake occurred early on Monday in a region where many people had already lost loved ones and been uprooted because of Syria’s ongoing war. It happened as many were sleeping.
The first relief convoy since the earthquake that has forced survivors to sleep outside owing to aftershock hazards arrived in rebel-held northwest Syria on Thursday, an official at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing told AFP.
Hospitals had already been devastated, the economy had already collapsed, and there had been electricity, fuel, and water shortages due to a decade of civil conflict and aerial bombardment by Syria and Russia.
