Turkey earthquake latest updates: Three British nationals missing as rescue efforts continue

Time is running out to save hundreds of families still trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings after yesterday’s devastating earthquake, the head of the Syrian opposition-run civil defence service has said.

Attempts to reach survivors were also impeded by temperatures below freezing and close to 200 aftershocks, which made the search through unstable structures perilous.

Raed al-Saleh told Reuters urgent help was needed from international groups for the rescue effort by the organisation known as the White Helmets in rebel-held northwest Syria, where hundreds were killed and injured.

“Every second means saving lives and we call on all humanitarian organisations to give material aid and respond to this catastrophe urgently,” he said.

Aid flows from Turkey to northwest Syria have temporarily stopped due to the fallout of a devastating earthquake, a UN spokesperson said today.

The cross-border aid operation overseen by the United Nations since 2014 has been crucial to Syrians who fled President Bashar al-Assad’s rule during the conflict, bypassing territory he controls.

There was no clear picture of when the aid – upon which some 4 million people depend – would resume, Madevi Sun-Suon, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA), told Reuters.

“Some roads are broken, some are inaccessible. There are logistical issues that need to be worked through,” she said.

“We are exploring all avenues to reach people in need,” she said.

Rescue teams are battling rain, snow and falling temperatures – sometimes digging with their bare hands through rubble – in a race against time to find survivors of the devastating earthquakes that have killed thousands across Turkey and Syria.

Search teams from all over the world, as well as almost 25,000 rescue workers from Turkey, have spread out across the hundreds of miles of the country that have been flattened by the tremors – with thousands of buildings having collapsed.

The same is true of the regions across Syria, both government-held regions and those overseen by opposition forces with the country in a civil war that has lasted more than a decade.

Survivors are sending voice notes on their phones from under the rubble of buildings collapsed by the earthquake in Turkey.

Turkish journalist Ibrahim Haskologlu, based in Istanbul, told the BBC: “People are still under the buildings, they need help.”

He said he was receiving voice notes, videos and live locations from trapped people.

They are telling us where they are and “we can’t do anything,” Mr Haskologlu said.

Matt Mathers plots the epicentres of the destructive earthquakes that have killed more than 5,000 people so far:

Three British nationals are missing following the earthquake which struck southeastern Turkey, near the Syrian border, the Foreign Secretary has said.

Making a statement in the Commons, James Cleverly said: “As of this morning, we know that three British nationals are missing and the Foreign Office’s Crisis Response Hub is working to support the at least 35 British nationals who have been directly affected by these earthquakes.

“We assess that the likelihood of large-scale British casualties remains low.”

More on this breaking story from Joe Middleton:

President Tayyip Erdogan has declared a state of emergency for three months, declaring as a disaster zone the 10 provinces affected by the devastating earthquakes in southern Turkey.

In a speech, Mr Erdogan said that 70 countries had offered help in search and rescue operations and that Turkey planned to open up hotels in the tourism hub of Antalya, to the west, to temporarily house people impacted by the quakes.

He said the death toll in Turkey had risen to 3,549 people.

Up to 23 million people may have been affected by the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria yesterday, the World Health Organisation has warned.

“Civilian infrastructure and potentially health infrastructure have been damaged across the affected region, mainly in Turkey and northwest Syria,” the World Health Organisation’s senior emergencies officer Adelheid Marschang said.

She said around five million of the affected people are vulnerable. WHO said it was dispatching emergency supplies, including trauma and emergency surgical kits, and activating a network of emergency medical teams.

Independent TV bring footage from the scene at Istanbul Airport as thousands of rescue workers head to aid the search effort in parts of the country damaged by yesterday’s earthquake.