'Beyond a nightmare': British aid teams 'feel helpless' working in 'disaster movie conditions' after Turkey-Syria earthquake

9 February 2023, 15:58 | Updated: 9 February 2023, 16:01

British aid workers on the ground in Turkey "feel helpless" working in "disaster movie" conditions as they help children who've lost their parents and homes.

Volunteers from humanitarian charities have travelled to devastated towns there and in Syria after Monday's 7.8 magnitude earthquake.

Around 20,000 people are already known to have died with hundreds more buried underneath rubble of collapsed buildings in freezing temperatures.

The city of Antakya marked the epicentre of what's now the deadliest seismic event in more than a decade, where Shahad Aziz from the World Care Foundation's Edinburgh branch is working.

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"It's like the city of the dead," she told LBC. "It's hard to actually describe what we're seeing here. It's heart-breaking. You almost feel helpless.

"You've got building after building that's collapsed totally. There's no power, no water, no heating. It's like something out of a movie."

Around 1,000 rescuers from around the world, including 76 from the UK, are helping local teams searching rubble.

It was in Antakya where a "miracle nine-year-old girl" was pulled uninjured from rubble after being trapped for 60 hours.

But Akeel Umar, also there from the World Care Foundation's Edinburgh branch, said many more haven't been saved.

"We saw a child wandering about because his parents and family didn't make it," Mr Umar said.

"There's so many children out there in a similar position. We have people sleeping in their cars, in the streets because where else can they go?

"Many of them don't want to leave sites because their loved ones are buried there. While there is a lot of search going on for survivors, there are unfortunately a lot of bodies.

"We unfortunately saw a father and son buried together. I will never forget that sight Nightmare isn't a word that would even describe this. It's like a nuclear blast that's happened."

The UK's Disasters Emergency Committee has launched an appeal to help get aid to the millions of people affected. You can find out more about the World Care Foundation's work here.