Increase killed in the earthquake

Hopes were fading Thursday for rescuing survivors of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, which has killed over 17,500 people in one of the deadliest tremors in decades.

Bitter cold has hampered the four-day search of thousands of flattened buildings and the 72-hour mark that experts consider the most likely period to save lives has passed.

Russian and Iranian rescuers assist their Syrian colleagues in Aleppo to find survivors after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the region and killed thousands of people in Turkey and Syria.

Relatives were left scouring body bags laid out in a hospital car park in Turkey's southern city of Antakya to search for missing relatives, an indication of the scale of the tragedy.

The 7.8-magnitude quake struck as people slept early Monday in a region where many people had already suffered loss and displacement due to Syria's civil war.

The quakes devastated entire sections of major cities in Turkey and war-ravaged Syria.

The region also hosts millions of people who have fled the civil war in Syria and other conflicts.

An official at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing said that an aid convoy reached rebel-held northwestern Syria Thursday, the first since the earthquake that has left survivors sleeping outdoors due to aftershock risks.

A decade of civil war and Syrian-Russian aerial bombardment had already destroyed hospitals, collapsed the economy and prompted electricity, fuel and water shortages.