Turkey Syria earthquake: More than five million Syrians forced out of home by earthquake

More than five million people in war-torn Syria may have been forced to leave their homes due to the earthquake that struck the country earlier this week, a humanitarian organisation has warned.

The United Nations refugee arm UNHCR said the country, which has been in civil war since 2011, was facing a “crisis within a crisis”.

The death toll for the quake, which hit northern Syria and southern Turkey, now stands at more than 23,000, according to official figures from both countries. The number of reported deaths in Syria stands at almost 3,400.

UNHCR said around 5.3m people have been displaced from their homes, on top of the 6.8m already living elsewhere within Syria due to the conflict.

Rescuers carry a victim retrieved from the rubble of a collapsed building, in the regime-controlled town of Jableh in the province of Latakia, northwest of the Syrian capital Damascus.

Aid access to Syrian populations hit by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake has been hampered by both the disaster and problems relating to the war.

Sivanka Dhanapala, UNHCR representative in Syria, said: "That is a huge number and comes to a population already suffering mass displacement. For Syria, this is a crisis within a crisis. We've had economic shocks, Covid and are now in the depths of winter, with blizzards raging in the affected areas.

"A number of our own staff are sleeping outside their homes because they are worried about the structural damage to their homes. This is just a microcosm of what is happening throughout the affected areas.”

He added: "All this, of course, impacts the access for aid. Roads have been damaged and that hampers us trying to reach people. It's been very, very difficult.”

Aid workers have claimed there is only enough medical supplies to treat a small percentage of those in need. Syrian civil defence group the White Helmets has accused the United Nations of handling the response to the earthquake "badly" and of not acting in an "impartial" way.

Last year, Russia demanded there should be a reduction in aid convoys into the rebel-held areas of northern Syria, though the Turkish land border. Instead, it said, aid supplies should go via Damascus.

The White Helmets claimed the UN was reticent to open new aid corridors in fear of angering Russia, something the organisation has denied.

Search operations have meanwhile managed to recover people four days on from the disaster, including six rescued from a collapsed building in Turkey after spending 101 hours beneath the debris.

Rescue workers in Iskenderun said those recovered were all relatives who managed to survive by huddling together in a small pocket left within the collapsed structure in Hatay province.

On Friday, Malcolm Russell, a member of the UK International Search and Rescue Team (UK-ISAR), tweeted to say some people were still being rescued, which is “giving everyone hope”.

The Disasters Emergency Committee said its appeal for funds had raised over £30m in its first day – including generous donations from the King and Queen Consort and the Prince and Princess of Wales.

The Prime Minister said the Government will match £5m in funds raised through the appeal to help the rescue and relief effort in the earthquake’s aftermath.

But aid workers have since expressed their concern that the recovery operations in war-torn Syria will take much longer.