Live blog update| Turkey-Syria earthquake
This is an entry from: Turkey-Syria earthquake: As it happened

Final update

17 February 2023 22:03 GMT
A clock tower in the southern Turkish city of Adiyaman froze at exactly at 04:17, the exact time when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck

Hello everyone,

I'm Faisal Edroos and this was Middle East Eye's live blog on the twin earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria on 6 February.

More than 43,000 people are now confirmed to have died after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked southeast Turkey and northwest Syria at 04:17 local time. A powerful aftershock registering 7.5 on the richter scale followed at 13:24, causing further carnage.

The earthquakes affected an exceptionally large area, causing destruction across a region that is around 12 times the size of Belgium.

The international community immediately responded to the disaster, sending hundreds of millions of dollars in supplies and specialist rescue teams to southern Turkey.

But in rebel-held Syria, assistance didn't arrive until nearly a week later, leaving shell-shocked victims to fend for themselves.

We've been covering the story from some of the the worst affected areas in both countries, as well as from our offices in Ankara, Istanbul, London and Washington DC.

Here are some articles that we think tell the story of what happened over these last 12 days:

  1. Survivors recount the night the earth shook and the help came too late
  2. Hospitals in northwest Syria overwhelmed with few doctors left on the front line
  3. Flooding wipes out crucial farmland after Idlib dam bursts its banks
  4. Europe, with billions for war, shows its true heartless face
  5. Are sanctions obstructing the delivery of aid to Syria?
  6. Grief gives way to anger in southern Turkey as anti-Syrian sentiment boils
  7. Time stands still in Adiyaman but anger grows over slow response
  8. World Bank estimated making homes safe would cost $465bn
  9. In a remote Turkish village survivors despair as aid eludes many
  10. 'Very simple things': Earthquake engineers on what went wrong in Turkey

We're now closing our live blog, but you can read the rest of our coverage on the quake here.

If you would like to support the rescue effort, lots of charities are desperately seeking extra funds to provide medical and humanitarian assistance in both countries. You can read more about them and donate here.

Thanks for joining us.