The death toll from the Turkiye-Syria earthquakes has climbed above 15,000 as rescuers race to save survivors trapped under debris in freezing weather.

Turkiye’s Disaster Management Authority (AFAD) said 12,391 people had died in the country from Monday’s quakes, while 2,992 people have died in Syria, bringing the confirmed total to 15,383.

The Syrian Civil Defence group continued search operations through the night in rebel-held parts of Syria as the rescue effort neared the 72-hour mark that disaster experts consider the most likely period to save lives.

“We are racing against time. Every minute counts,” tweeted the opposition group, who are also known as the White Helmets.

The group said hundreds of people remain trapped in the rubble in the town of Jandires in the province of Aleppo.

Access to Twitter in Turkey has been restored, the Netblocks internet observatory has said.

“The restoration comes after authorities held meeting with Twitter to ‘remind Twitter of its obligations on content takedowns and disinformation’,” Netblocks said.

The Turkish president has admitted to problems with his government’s initial response to the devastating earthquakes in southern Turkey, amid anger from those left destitute and frustrated over the slow arrival of rescue teams, Al Jazeera reported.

“Of course, there are shortcomings,” Erdogan said during a visit to the city of Kahramanmaras, one of the hardest hit spots.

“The conditions are clear to see. It’s not possible to be ready for a disaster like this.”

Temperatures in the quake-stricken Turkish city of Gaziantep plunged to minus five degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit) early on Thursday but thousands of families spent the night in cars and makeshift tents, too afraid to return to their homes – or banned from doing so.
Parents walked the streets of the city carrying children in blankets because it was warmer than sitting in a tent.

Reuters has this heartbreaking story from Turkey’s Hatay, where the agency’s photographer Umit Bektas witnessed rescuers trying to pull Abdulalim Muaini out from the rubble of his home.

Abdulalim’s legs were trapped under a large slab of concrete but he was conscious and able to talk to his rescuers.

Close beside him lay his wife, Esra. But the rescue had come too late for her.

The magnitude 7.8 and 7.6 earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday are classified as “major” on the Richter scale.