A massive earthquake that struck a large portion of Turkey and northwest Syria on Monday claimed more than 2,400 lives, and the cold winter weather made matters worse for the thousands of people who were left injured or homeless and complicated rescue attempts.
OCHA spokeswoman Madevi Sun-Suon stated that the organisation anticipated the casualty numbers to rise because of the large number of people still trapped under the debris and the response effort being impeded by challenging weather conditions.
According to the spokeswoman, the organisation has also noticed at least 170 damaged buildings in northwest Syria.
Syria is already dealing with a severe humanitarian crisis that has lasted for years.
