Over 34,000 dead from quake in Turkey and Syria

An anonymous man in the United States has donated $30 million to earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria, according to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who tweeted the news on Saturday. 

“Deeply moved by the example of an anonymous Pakistani who walked into the Turkish embassy in the US and donated $30 million for earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria," the prime minister tweeted.

Anadolu Agency, one of Turkey's state-run media channels, confirmed the news.

CNN has reached out to the embassy for comment.  

A father who was photographed holding the hand of his 15-year-old daughter under earthquake rubble in Kahramanmaras this week said she died at the moment of the earthquake with no chance to escape.

Speaking to CNN Turk on Saturday, Mesut Hancer said he lost other family members in the earthquake including his mother, two older brothers and one sister-in-law.

Hancer said he was able to get to his daughter three days after the earthquake. She had been visiting her paternal grandmother in Kahramanmaras.

He said his daughter’s body above her waist had been outside the rubble but the rest was under the rubble. Authorities were unable to bring a construction lift to help pull out her body and a man helped him dig his daughter’s body out.

Hancer also told CNN Turk he is currently without a home due to the damage that occurred on his house.

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said in a tweet Saturday that aid to Syria was being routed through Beirut, Lebanon. 

"We were the first in Europe to send aid to Syria. (The aid is) transported to Beirut because it was not possible for us to land in Aleppo. Now (it) will reach Damascus and be sorted by the Red Crescent," the tweet read. 

More than 28,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands injured after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on Monday, officials said.

Rescue operations are over in rebel-held areas of northwest Syria, the White Helmets volunteer organization said on Friday. Relief efforts there have been complicated by a long-running civil war.

The Syrian government approved sending aid to the rebel-held territories Friday but did not provide specifics.

The death toll across Turkey and Syria following Monday’s earthquake has reached 28,192.

Turkey’s death toll climbed to 24,617, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said in a news conference Saturday.

In Syria, the total number of confirmed deaths stand at 3,575, including 2,167 in rebel-held areas in the northwest, according to the White Helmets civil defense group. An additional 1,408 deaths have been recorded in government-controlled territories, according to Syrian state media, which cited the country's health ministry.

Authorities in Turkey have detained a number of individuals responsible for the construction of buildings that collapsed in Monday's catastrophic earthquake, according to Turkish state news agency Anadolu.

Hasan Alpargün, the owner of a company that built buildings destroyed in the city of Adana, was detained in Nicosia, Cyprus, on Saturday, according to Anadolu.

Prosecutors in the city of Adana have issued a detention order for 62 people in relation to an investigation into the buildings destroyed by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake.

Mehmet Yaşar Coşkun, who Anadolu said is the contractor for Rönesans Residence, a block of high-rise luxury flats that collapsed in Hatay Province, was also arrested on Saturday. Coşkun was intercepted by authorities at Istanbul Airport on Friday while attempting to flee to Montenegro, according to Anadolu. 

Contractor İbrahim Mustafa Uncuoğlu was also detained in Istanbul on Saturday over allegedly faulty inspections of the Bahar Apartments, which collapsed in the earthquake epicenter of Gaziantep, the news agency said.

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Recovery in Turkey after the devastating earthquake has now entered the "humanitarian phase," according to Jamie LeSueur, the head of emergency operations at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

As his team moves on from search-and-rescue operations, the greatest needs for those affected in Turkey continue to be food, health and water, LeSueur told CNN from Gaziantep.

The organization is receiving many winterized tents right now due to cold weather, but it is looking into pre-fabricated transitional shelter options, he said. Most of the population is too afraid to go inside, even if their homes have not been completely destroyed.  

"We want to get them out of the humanitarian phase as quickly as possible, into something sustainable and transitional that's going to keep them safe for a long time," the crisis responder said.

LeSueur added that his team is preparing for any eventuality, including the spread of diseases, and they are coordinating with the Turkish Red Crescent about sanitation needs.

The Red Cross is well-positioned to deal with needs in southern Turkey, he said, but also in hard-hit areas of northwestern Syria, where aid has been more complicated due to years of civil war.

"In Turkey, we've established an operation that goes to the border with Syria, and in Syria, we're using the Syrian Arab Red Crescent that going up to the Turkish border; we're trying to cover the entire operational area with two national societies," he said.