Woman and child sitting under a tent, too afraid to be in their home, following the the deadly earthquake in Kirikhan
A woman and a child sit under a tent, too afraid to be in their home, nearly a week after the deadly earthquake, in Kirikhan, Turkey, February 12, 2023. Reuters

In the Turkish town of Elbistan, a young man sat atop a pile of collapsed concrete and twisted metal, staring for half an hour at a small opening in the ruins of what had been his family's home.

He did not want to speak.

"His mother and sister are still under the rubble," a neighbour, Mustafa Bahcivan, said.

The stench of dead bodies wafted through the cold, dusty air in Elbistan, epicentre of a powerful aftershock that struck hours after the devastating earthquake that killed more than 33,000 people in Turkey and neighbouring Syria one week ago.

While rescue workers continue to pull people alive from the rubble in some areas, the freezing temperatures in Elbistan, situated in a mountainous area of southeast Turkey, make it all the more unlikely more survivors will be found here.

Residents were trying to retrieve whatever they could from the destruction when Reuters visited the town on Sunday, as excavator trucks dug through the debris.

Bahcivan, 32, owned a mobile phone shop in a street that was almost entirely wrecked. He said he had returned to sift through rubble in the hope of finding intact phones that he might be able to sell.

"This is our home," Bahcivan said. "This used to be one of the busiest streets. Now it's completely gone," he said, as his wife and six-year-old son sheltered in a nearby cafe.

Up the street, four members of a family climbed another mound of rubble, trying to salvage belongings.

"We just want to get some food," said Bilal Bolukbasi, the father. They formed a human chain, passing whatever they could find from the rubble to the pavement, where bags of frozen meat, boxes of crushed tomatoes and jars of grains had been placed.

Around town, residents walked with their phones held up, documenting what remained.

"For memories," one man said.

A team of civil engineers toured the main road. Savas Karabulut, a seismologist from Gebze Tech University, said they were inspecting the damage for an academic report.

By studying the rubble, the team aimed to assess whether some of the newer buildings were erected in contravention of building regulations, he said, criticising the government which he said had failed to heed warnings of a big earthquake.

Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Sunday that 131 suspects had so far been identified as responsible for the collapse of some of the thousands of buildings flattened in the 10 provinces affected by the earthquakes.

A telecommunications engineer who had toured damage in the area said Elbistan was particularly hard hit.

"It's just like hell," he said.

(Editing by Tom Perry and Christina Fincher)