Hopes faded Thursday of finding more survivors after the earthquake that killed nearly 20,000 people in Turkey and Syria, as the first UN aid reached Syrian rebel-held zones.
Bitter cold has hampered the four-day search of thousands of flattened buildings and threatened the lives of many quake victims who are without shelter and drinking water.
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.
"We found my aunt, but not my uncle," said Rania Zaboubi, a Syrian refugee who lost eight members of her family as other survivors sought loved ones' bodies.
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.
But in a potentially life-saving development, an aid convoy reached rebel-held northwestern Syria on Thursday, the first since the quake, an official at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing told AFP.
- Freezing temperatures -
A decade of civil war and Syrian-Russian aerial bombardment had already destroyed hospitals, collapsed the economy and prompted electricity, fuel and water shortages.
Temperatures in the Turkish city of Gaziantep plunged to minus five degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit) early Thursday, but thousands of families spent the night in cars and makeshift tents -- too scared or banned from returning to their homes.
Parents walked the streets of the city -- close to the epicentre of Monday's earthquake -- carrying their children in blankets because it was warmer than sitting in a tent.
Some people have found sanctuary with neighbours or relatives. Some have left the region. But many have nowhere to go.
"When we sit down, it is painful and I fear for anyone who is trapped under the rubble in this," said Melek Halici, who wrapped her two-year-old daughter in a blanket as they watched rescuers working into the night.
International rescuers have said the intense cold has forced them to weigh whether to use their limited fuel supplies to keep warm or to carry out their work.
- Racing against the clock -
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after mounting criticism online, acknowledged on Wednesday "there are shortcomings. The conditions are clear to see. It's not possible to be ready for a disaster like this."
Monday's quake was the largest Turkey has seen since 1939, when 33,000 people died in the eastern Erzincan province.
Officials and medics said 16,546 people had died in Turkey and 3,317 in Syria from Monday's 7.8-magnitude tremor, bringing the confirmed total to 19,863. Experts fear the number will continue to rise sharply.
Despite the dimming hopes for rescues, thousands of local and foreign searchers have not given up in the hunt for more survivors.
Their home region's government has declared a national mobilisation, hiring a private plane so they could join the search-and-rescue effort for the children.
Ilhami Bilgen, whose brother Hasan was on the volleyball team, looked at the frightening pile of concrete slabs and heavy bricks that used to be the hotel.
- Donor conference -
Dozens of nations, including China and the United States have pledged to help, and search teams as well as relief supplies have already arrived.
In Brussels, the EU is planning a donor conference in March to mobilise international aid for Syria and Turkey.
The European Union said the conference would be held in coordination with Turkish authorities "to mobilise funds from the international community in support for the people" of both countries.
The bloc was swift to dispatch rescue teams to Turkey after the massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country on Monday close to the border with Syria.
In addition to a staggering human toll, the quake's economic cost appears likely to exceed $2 billion and could reach $4 billion or more, Fitch Ratings said.
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© Agence France-Presse
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