More than 11,000 dead in devastating Turkey and Syria earthquakes

More than 11,000 people are now confirmed to have been killed after a series of earthquakes and aftershocks hit Turkey and Syria in the early hours of Monday morning. 

Rescue workers -- from Turkey and international teams -- are racing against time to find survivors amid the devastation of flattened towns and cities in southern Turkey and northern Syria, and continue to pull survivors from the wreckage amid freezing temperatures. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has declared a three-month state of emergency in 10 afflicted provinces of the country, aimed at allowing relief workers and financial aid to reach the stricken areas. 

"I would like to remind [the general public] that no one should use the roads leading to and within the earthquake zone unless it is compulsory, and telephone calls should not be made except for urgent needs," he said.

A winter storm has compounded the misery by rendering many roads, some of them damaged by the quake, almost impassable, resulting in traffic jams that stretch for kilometres in some regions.

Monday’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake and powerful aftershocks cut a swath of destruction that stretched hundreds of kilometres across southeastern Turkey and neighbouring Syria. 

"It is now a race against time," said World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"We have activated the WHO network of emergency medical teams to provide essential health care for the injured and most vulnerable," he added.

In Syria, the civil defence group known as the White Helmets, which is more used to searching bombed-out buildings, is spread very thin.

Meanwhile, the logistics and politics of aiding Syria, especially vulnerable areas in the northwest, are much more complicated.

The few available