The death toll from the deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck eastern Turkey and neighboring Syria has risen to 4,983 as rescuers raced Tuesday to find survivors in the rubble of thousands of collapsed buildings.

Countries around the world dispatched teams to assist in the rescue efforts, and Turkey’s disaster management agency said more than 24,400 emergency personnel were now on the ground. But with such a wide swath of territory hit by Monday’s earthquake and nearly 6,000 buildings confirmed to have collapsed in Turkey alone, their efforts were spread thin.

Attempts to reach survivors were also impeded by temperatures below freezing and close to 200 aftershocks, which made the search through unstable structures perilous.

Turkey’s president is calling it the worst disaster since the Erzincan quake, which killed 32,968 people and injured 100,000 in 1939, and declared a period of mourning until sunset Sunday.

Monday’s initial earthquake had a magnitude of 7.8 and a depth of 11 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The quake that happened in the Pazarcik district affected Kahramanmar, along with Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Adana, Adiyaman, Malatya, Osmaniye, Hatay and Kilis.

A second tremor, which officials said was “not an aftershock,” measured at 7.5 magnitude and was located 2.5 miles south-southeast of Ekinozu.

According to the USGS, the two earthquakes could cause as many as 10,000 deaths and $1 billion in economic losses.

“It’s difficult to watch this tragedy unfold, especially since we’ve known for a long time about how poorly the buildings in the region tend to behave in earthquakes,” USGS scientist David Wald said Monday. “An earthquake this size has the potential to be damaging anywhere in the world, but many structures in this region are particularly vulnerable.”

CurrentPH News Service