Turkey Earthquake, Nearly 20,000 Dead
Hopes were starting to fade Thursday of finding more survivors after the earthquake that killed nearly 20,000 people in Turkey and Syria, as the first UN aid reached Syrian rebel-held zones.
Bitter cold has hampered the four-day search of thousands of flattened buildings and threatened the lives of many quake victims who are without shelter and drinking water.
The quake that razed thousands of buildings was one of the deadliest worldwide in more than a decade, with the deaths surpassing even the toll from the 2011 earthquake off Fukushima, Japan, that triggered a tsunami, killing more than 18,400.
Death toll keeps climbing.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday that 16,546 people were killed in his nation and more than 66,000 injured. On the Syrian side of the border, 3,577 have been reported dead and more than 6,300 injured, bringing the death toll in the two countries to over 19,700.
