Earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria leave more than 5 dead.

Reuters Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan declared a state of emergency on Tuesday in 10 provinces devastated by two earthquakes that killed more than 5.100 people and left a trail of destruction across a wide area of ​​southern Turkey and neighboring Syria.

A day after the earthquake, rescue teams working in difficult conditions struggled to pull people from the rubble of collapsed buildings in a "race against time".

As the scale of the disaster became increasingly apparent, the death toll seemed to rise considerably. A United Nations official said he feared thousands of children may have been killed.

The harsh winter hampered rescue efforts and aid delivery, making the situation of the homeless even more miserable. Some areas were left without fuel and electricity.

Humanitarian officials expressed particular concern about the situation in Syria, already gripped by a humanitarian crisis after nearly 12 years of civil war.

In a speech on Tuesday, Erdogan declared the 10 affected Turkish provinces a disaster zone and imposed a state of emergency in the region for three months. This will allow the president and cabinet to bypass parliament in enacting new laws and limit or suspend rights and freedoms.

The government plans to open hotels in the western tourist center of Antalya to temporarily house people affected by the earthquakes, said Erdogan, who faces a national election in three months.

The death toll in Turkey has risen to 3.549, Erdogan said. In Syria, the death toll was just over 1.600, according to the government and a rescue service in the insurgent-controlled northwest.

"EVERY MINUTE, EVERY HOUR"

Turkish authorities say that some 13,5 million people have been affected in an area roughly 450 km (280 miles) from Adana in the west to Diyarbakir in the east, and 300 km from Malatya in the north to Hatay in the south. Syrian authorities have reported deaths in the far south of Hama, about 100 km from the epicenter.

"Now it's a race against time," said the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in Geneva. "With every passing minute, every passing hour, the chances of finding survivors alive diminish."

Throughout the region, rescue teams worked through the night and into the morning searching for survivors, while people waited anxiously amidst piles of rubble, clinging to the hope that friends and relatives might be found alive.

In the Turkish city of Antakya, capital of Hatay province near the Syrian border, a woman's voice was heard calling for help from under a pile of rubble. Reuters journalists saw the lifeless body of a small child lying nearby.

Weeping in the rain, a resident who identified himself as Deniz wrung his hands in despair.

"They're making noise, but nobody's coming," he said. "We're devastated, we're devastated. My God... They're screaming. They're saying, 'Save us,' but we can't save them. How are we going to save them? There's been nobody since this morning."

Families were sleeping in cars lined up in the streets.

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