Turkey-Syria earthquake death toll passes 45,000; many still missing in flattened apartments

More than 45,000 people have been killed in the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria, and the toll is expected to soar with some 264,000 apartments in Turkey destroyed and many still missing in the country's worst modern disaster.

Eleven days after the quake hit, three survivors were dug out from the rubble in Turkey on Friday. The death toll in Turkey stands at 39,672, while neighbouring Syria has reported more than 5,800 deaths. Syria's toll has not changed for days.

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Mosques around the world on Friday performed absentee funeral prayers for the dead in Turkey and Syria, many of whom could not receive full burial rites given the enormity of the disaster.

While many international rescue teams have left the vast quake zone, domestic teams continued to search through flattened buildings on Saturday hoping to find more survivors who defied the odds. Experts say most rescues occur in the 24 hours following an earthquake.

A rescue worker looks at a damaged building during sunset in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Turkey. Reuters

Hakan Yasinoglu, in his 40s, was rescued in the southern province of Hatay, 278 hours after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck in the dead of night on Feb. 6, the Istanbul Fire Brigade said.

Earlier, Osman Halebiye, 14, and Mustafa Avci, 34, were saved in Turkey's historic city of Antakya, known in ancient times as Antioch. As Avci was carried away, he was put on a video call with his parents, who showed him his newborn baby.

"I had completely lost all hope. This is a true miracle. They gave me my son back. I saw the wreckage and I thought nobody could be saved alive from there," his father said.

An exhausted Avci was later reunited with his wife Bilge and daughter Almile at a hospital in Mersin.

Aid organisations say the survivors will need help for months to come with so much crucial infrastructure destroyed.

A view of a demolition site in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Reuters

In neighbouring Syria, already shattered by more than a decade of civil war, the bulk of fatalities have been in the northwest, an area controlled by insurgents who are at war with President Bashar Al Assad — a conflict that has complicated efforts to aid people affected by the earthquake.

The sides clashed overnight for the first time since the disaster, with government forces shelling the outskirts of Atareb, a rebel-held town badly hit by the earthquake, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Friday.

Reuters could not independently verify the report.

Thousands of Syrians who had sought refuge in Turkey from their country's civil war have returned to their homes in the war zone - at least for now.

Reuters