The Ministry for Home Affairs announced that a third member of the CGDIS Humanitarian Intervention Team (HIT) has been deployed to provide support in Turkey, where the earthquake has killed more than 28,000 people.

Luxembourg continues providing support to Turkey after the a series of earthquakes shook the country and left more than 28,000 people dead on Monday 6 February. The Grand Duchy's Ministry for Home Affairs announced that a third member of the Humanitarian Response Team (HIT) from the Grand Ducal Fire and Rescue Corps (CGDIS) has now been sent to provide support in Turkey.

"Luxembourg continues its efforts to support the international mobilisation in support of Turkey and Syria. A CGDIS firefighter will be involved in the logistical coordination of the European teams on site," tweeted CGDIS director Paul Schroeder on Saturday.

Saved lives and insecurity

Miraculously saved lives, makeshift morgues, and an uncertain security situation: rescue efforts continued in Turkey and Syria on Saturday after a powerful earthquake killed more than 28,000 people and left millions homeless.

In the winter cold, rescuers are still digging up survivors, including children, from the rubble five days after the disaster.

The Austrian army has announced the suspension of its rescue operations in the affected areas of Turkey due to the "security situation" on the ground. "There have been attacks between groups," a spokesperson told AFP in Vienna without providing further details on the incidents in question.

A similar decision was taken in Germany by the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), as well as by the NGO I.S.A.R. Germany, which specialises in assisting victims of natural disasters, according to a spokesperson for the NGO.

Two Austrian dog handlers resumed their search in the afternoon, according to the same source, "under the protection of the Turkish army". A tweet from the Turkish embassy in Vienna has further indicated that "the Austrian team is currently not facing any security problems".

'I am heartbroken'

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has in the meantime arrived in the Syrian city of Aleppo, which was hit by the earthquake, to assess the situation on the ground.

"I am heartbroken seeing the conditions survivors are facing - freezing weather and extremely limited access to shelter, food, water, heat, and medical care," he tweeted.

According to the latest official figures, the 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed at least 28,191 people: 24,617 in Turkey and 3,574 in Syria. The WHO estimates that 23 million people in both countries are "potentially at risk, including about five million vulnerable people" and fears a major health crisis that might cause even more damage than the earthquake did.

Humanitarian organisations are particularly concerned about the spread of cholera, which has reappeared in Syria.

On Friday, the Syrian government authorised "the delivery of humanitarian aid to the whole country" - including rebel-held areas - where 5.3 million people are at risk of being left homeless, according to the UN.

A crossing between Turkey and Armenia has also been opened for the first time in 35 years to allow humanitarian aid to be delivered through this point in Alican, in the province of Igdir, according to Turkish sources.

'Is the world still here?'

In Turkey, a two-year-old girl called Asya was rescued in the southern province of Hatay, according to Turkish media, but her family has not yet been found.

Rescuers also pulled a 70-year-old woman, Mnekse Tabak, from the rubble in Turkey's Kahramanmaras province amid applause and cries of "Allah is great", according to a video broadcast by state-owned TRT Haber. "Is the world still here?", she asked as she returned to daylight.

The Anadolu news agency reported the rescue of a 35-year-old mother, Ozlem Yilmaz, and her six-year-old daughter Hatice from a collapsed building in Adiyaman province. An American doctor gave them first aid before they were transferred to a hospital.

A German NGO reported that a 40-year-old woman found alive in Kirikhan (southern Turkey) after more than 100 hours under the rubble succumbed to her injuries.

In the south of the country, improvised morgues have been set up in car parks, stadiums, and gymnasiums, with anxious families searching for relatives and friends among the dead.

According to Turkey's natural disaster agency, nearly 32,000 people have been mobilised for search and rescue operations, as well as more than 8,000 foreign rescue workers. More than 25,000 Turkish military personnel are also in the affected areas, according to Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar.

Arrests

In addition, Turkish media reported the arrest of a dozen contractors, mainly in Sanliurfa, one of the regions most severely affected by the quake. The brutal collapse of buildings, which revealed their poor construction and left their residents with virtually no chance of surviving, has sparked anger throughout the country.

While humanitarian aid from abroad is flowing into Turkey, access to war-torn Syria, whose regime is under international sanctions, is proving more complicated. "The Council of Ministers has agreed to the delivery of humanitarian aid" to the whole of Syria, "including areas outside state control", the Syrian government announced.

Damascus said the distribution of aid should be "supervised by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Red Crescent", with support of the UN.

Until now, almost all aid to rebel areas has been trickling in from Turkey through the Bab al-Hawa crossing, the only path currently guaranteed by the UN.

On the Syrian side, Jableh, a regime stronghold in the north-western province of Latakia, had been relatively unaffected by the hostilities, but the violence of the earthquake has left the town unrecognisable.