Race on To Find Quake Survivors as Erdogan Blasted for Slow Response

Domestic and foreign rescue workers in Turkey and Syria were scrambling Wednesday to find survivors from the massive earthquake that struck early Monday, as the crucial first 72 hours ticked by.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was visiting areas hit by the 7.8-magnitude temblor, said Wednesday that the country’s death toll in the quake had reached 8,754, which, along with the known 2,470 Syrian victims, brings the total number of fatalities to 11,224 so far.

Aid has been flowing into Turkey from around the world, and multiple countries have sent rescue workers to join the search for survivors, including China, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Pakistan, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Turkish government has been coming under criticism for the slow response from its Disaster and Emergency Management Authority in certain less central areas, with some survivors of the quake saying they had been left without food or shelter in the bitter winter cold.

“If there is one person responsible for this, it is Erdogan,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the head of the country’s main opposition party, was quoted by the BBC as saying.