Rescuers racing against time for 2nd day to search survivors in quake-hit Turkiye

ANKARA - Rescuers in quake-hit Turkiye are beating the clock and battling heavy rain to save survivors from rubbles on Tuesday, as more than 24 hours have passed since massive earthquakes wreaked havoc in the country's southeast.

The death toll from Monday's powerful earthquakes in southern Turkiye rose to 3,549, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan upon declaring that a three-month state of emergency is enacted in 10 affected provinces.

Meanwhile, the number of wounded people stood at 21,103, Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said in an update.

Two major earthquakes of 7.7 and 7.6 magnitudes hit the province of Kahramanmaras Monday. At least 78 aftershocks were recorded, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay has said.

Turkish NTV broadcaster warned that the toll could rise dramatically as foul weather hampered the rescuers in the south while increasing the risk of hypothermia among those who remained under the rubble overnight.

News footage from NTV showed dozens of rescuers and volunteers searching through the ruins of multi-story apartment blocks through the night under the snow in the southeastern Diyarbakir province.

Mosques, gymnasiums, and schools were opened for people who might need to take shelter. However, power aftershocks have kept many people from staying indoors.

TV footage displayed people from Kahramanmaras spending the night in cars, some wrapped themselves in blankets to repel the freezing weather.

Turkish authorities have dispatched a total of 12,181 search and rescue workers to the quake zones, including 3,294 foreign emergency personnel sent by 14 countries, Oktay said on Tuesday.

The emergency operations are being hampered by a winter blizzard as the temperatures recorded as minus 10 degrees Celsius in most of the 10 affected provinces.

At least 5,775 buildings were damaged and more than 8,000 people have been pulled out of the rubbles, but the teams were also struggling with "extremely severe weather conditions," Oktay said.

The magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Turkiye's southern province of Kahramanmaras at 4:17 am local time (0117 GMT) on Monday, followed by a magnitude 6.4 quake a few minutes later in the nearby Gaziantep Province, and a magnitude 7.6 earthquake at 1:24 pm local time (1024 GMT) in the Kahramanmaras Province.

The quakes were also felt in Lebanon, Israel and Cyprus.

Turkiye's southern province of Hatay bordering Syria suffered the most loss of life in the earthquake with at least 872 casualties.

In Hatay, roads and an airport runway were ruptured and numerous buildings, including two hospitals, collapsed in the quake.

Hatay Mayor Lutfu Savas told Halk TV broadcaster that search and rescue teams could only arrive in the namesake city till Tuesday morning due to ruined roads and blocked transportation amid heavy snow.

He stressed that there was also a serious communication problem in the city.

The Port of Iskenderun district in Hatay continues to burn with massive flames after some containers started burning for an undetermined reason on Monday, the semi-official Anadolu Agency reported.

Firefighter efforts to control the flames continue, but locals still share images of dense black smoke rising from the port.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday declared seven days of national mourning for the victims.

Monday's earthquake is believed to be the strongest in Turkiye since the magnitude 7.9 tremor in eastern Erzincan Province that killed 33,000 people in 1939.

In 1999, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck central and western Turkiye on Aug 17. Later on Nov 12, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck western Turkiye. The two earthquakes killed around 18,000 people, injured 43,000 others and left 600,000 people homeless.

Turkiye sits at the intersection of three major tectonic plates: the African plate, the Eurasian plate and the Arabian plate, and around 42 percent of its territory is situated in a seismically active region, which is why the country is so prone to earthquakes.