The death toll in Syria is approaching 3,600 on Sunday after strong earthquakes of magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 last week devastated neighboring Turkey.
The toll is compiled from Syrian state media and Syrian Civil Defense sources as the country remains divided between factions due to a decade of civil war.
The Syrian Civil Defense, better known as the White Helmets, announced on Friday that the death toll in northwestern Syria had risen to 2,166, with more than 3,000 injured as of Saturday.
He added that more than 550 buildings were completely destroyed in the region, and the number of badly damaged buildings is 1,578.
“Search operations continue with bodies being recovered under very difficult conditions 116 hours after the earthquake,” a rescue service operating in the opposition-held northwest tweeted.
Meanwhile, according to the state news agency SANA, the death toll from the earthquake in areas controlled by the Syrian regime has exceeded 1,400 people.
The total death toll in Syria was 3,575. However, that number could rise significantly as the window to rescue survivors trapped under the rubble quickly closed almost a week after the quake.
The head of the White Helmets, a humanitarian organization working in opposition-controlled areas of Syria, said their search and rescue operation was “completed”, dispelling hopes that more survivors could be found.
“We didn’t rescue anyone else alive, so we moved on to the second stage – removing bodies from under the rubble,” Raed Saleh, head of the White Helmets, told dpa.
They tweeted that they had not rescued anyone alive since Thursday.
However, from the regime-controlled side, three people were rescued from the rubble of a building in the city of Jable almost 110 hours after the deadly earthquake, state media reported.
Live television footage from the scene showed Syrian and Lebanese rescuers pulling two people out of the rubble as passers-by cheered and shouted, “God is great.”
Rescuers said that two of those rescued were a woman and her child.
On Sunday, a convoy of ten UN trucks crossed the Turkish border and headed for northwestern Syria, an area largely out of control of the Damascus central government, through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, according to an AFP correspondent.
The trucks carried shelter kits, including plastic sheeting, ropes, screws and nails for tents, as well as blankets, mattresses and carpets.
