Over 9,500 earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria

Officials said on February 8th that 6,957 people have been confirmed killed in Turkey and 2,547 in Syria. The number of victims is expected to increase, while rescue teams have continued to seek to survive powerful earthquakes.

The first quake on February 6th was 7.8-magnical, about 20 miles [26 km] from the town of Nurdag and about 33 km from the city of Gaziantep, the American Geological Service said. And during the same day, another mighty earthquake of 7.5 degrees of Riter's was recorded.

But rescue efforts have been hampered by low temperatures and hundreds of afternoons, which have made work in unstable structures especially dangerous.

In the Syrian city of Dzidraris, a newborn baby was pulled out of the ruins.

We cleaned the dust and found the baby that still had the umbilical cord, cut it off, and my cousin took the baby to the hospital”, said a family member of the baby saved from the ruins.

Some of the major damage has been recorded in the Turkish province of Gaziantep, where hundreds of buildings have collapsed and blocked roads, hampering rescue efforts.

Survivors, most of whom have no shoes or warm clothes, are facing low - temperature survival.

Turkey's President, Recep Tayip Erdogan, is expected to visit the earthquake-affected area on February 8th.

This is one of the greatest disasters in our region and the world, not only in the history of our republic”, he said.

In Syria, rescue operations have been complicated because the health care system and infrastructure have been destroyed by the ongoing civil war for 12 years.

Tens of countries around the world have provided emergency humanitarian assistance, including the delivery of search-saving teams and other relief supplies.

Turkey's Foreign Affairs Minister, Mevluut Cavusoglu, said teams from 35 states have already reached earthquake-affected areas.

The European Union has offered to send over 1,200 rescue workers, including two medical teams and over 70 rescue search dogs.

The World Health Organisation said as many as 23 million people could be affected by the disaster, while the Syrian Red Halfhenna called for the international community to lift sanctions imposed on the government of Syrian authoritarian President Bashar al-Assad to facilitate rescue efforts.

The 7.8-strong earthquake has hit Turkey since 1939, when 33,000 people were killed in the province of Erzincan. Over 17,000 people were killed in 1999 by the earthquake in this area, one of the world's largest seismic activity areas.