Turkish President Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in ten regions affected by the powerful earthquakes that claimed thousands of lives, reported the Anadolu Agency, quoted by BGNES.

At a press conference, the President of Turkey announced that 3,549 deaths and 22,168 injuries had been registered so far.

"We are facing one of the biggest catastrophes not only in the history of our republic, but also in our geography and in the world. We have 3,549 dead and 22,168 injured. Our greatest consolation is that so far more than 8,000 of our citizens have rescued from the rubble," he added.

So far, 54,000 tents, 102,000 beds and other essential goods have been sent to the region, Erdogan added.

"First of all, we have allocated 100 billion pounds to our emergency aid and support institutions," he continued. "There are currently 53,317 search and rescue and relief personnel working in the disaster area. Their number is increasing every hour with teams from Turkey and abroad. In addition to thousands of specialized personnel, our gendarmerie is on duty in the disaster area with 54 cargo planes, and the Coast Guard Command is on duty with its 10 ships and boats," Erdogan said. "Nearly 1,000 ambulances and 5,000 medical personnel were transferred to the region in 2 air ambulances."

President Erdogan also stated: "Education has been suspended until February 13 in schools across the country and until February 20 in schools in the disaster area."

The Turkish president also said that hotels in the Antalya region are planned to be opened to temporarily accommodate people affected by the earthquakes.

Over 5,000 deaths from the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria

Rescue teams are searching for survivors under the debris, and the number of victims of the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria has exceeded 5,000 people, reports Reuters.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake, Turkey's most devastating since 1999, struck early Monday morning, collapsing thousands of buildings, including many apartment blocks, and leaving thousands injured and homeless in Turkish and Syrian cities.

Turkish authorities said about 13.5 million people were affected in the quake zone, which spanned about 450 km from Adana in the west to Diyarbakır in the east and 300 km from Malatya in the north to Hatay in the south. In Syria, authorities reported deaths as far south as Hama, about 100 km from the epicenter.

In Turkey, the death toll has risen to 3,419, Vice President Fuat Oktay said, adding that bad weather conditions - freezing rain and cold - are hampering search efforts and aid deliveries.

In Syria, where the quake further damaged infrastructure already ravaged by 11 years of war, the death toll topped 1,600, according to government and rescue teams in the rebel-held northwest.

Miracles in Turkey: Babies and children - alive and saved, from the ruins of the earthquakes

For the second day now, Turkey has been torn by the tragic stories of the thousands who died under the ruins of collapsed buildings after the two devastating earthquakes that struck the southeastern part of the country.

And while the number of victims is increasing like an avalanche, the stories of rescued children, who stood for hours under the debris, bring a ray of hope to the rescuers that even in grief, life must go on.

Even today, the testimonies of babies and small children torn from the clutches of death, which the rescuers take out from the collapsed buildings made of cardboard, continue.

Such is the story of the two-month-old baby Mehmet Cinar, who was found alive under the debris of a collapsed cooperative in Hatay - nearly 30 hours after the earthquake, CNN Turk reports.

From the footage shared on Twitter by Ashlihan Elibol, it can be seen how a man who dug up the baby screams happy that he found the boy alive.

The man immediately goes to a nearby ambulance, where the baby is wrapped in thermal clothes and blankets and examined by the medics on the spot.

However, Mehmet's story is far from the only one - while searching the center of Hatay, the rescue teams heard noises coming from a collapsed building. They pulled out two children from the ruins, who remained buried for 26 hours. Immediately afterwards, they were taken by ambulance to hospital due to their minor injuries.

3-year-old Miran Tekesh was found alive under a collapsed 5-story residential building in the center of the city of Malatya, where he stayed for 22 hours after the earthquake, CNN Turk also reports.

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