Netakih ( Turkey ) - (AFP) - Rescue workers in Turkey and Syria continued their efforts Thursday, in extreme cold weather, to search for survivors under the rubble, with diminishing chances of rescue, three days after the earthquake that killed more than 16,000 people.

The researcher in natural disasters at the University of "College of London" Ilan Kellman said that the first 72 hours are crucial to finding survivors, as more than ninety percent of them are rescued in this period.

As the excavators work day and night non-stop, the new drop in temperatures turns the living conditions into hell for the survivors who have nowhere to go.

In the stricken Turkish city of Gaziantep (south), temperatures fell to minus 5 degrees Celsius in the early hours of Thursday morning.

An aid worker digs to reach a boy who got stuck under the rubble on February 8, 2023 in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey, two days after a strong earthquake.

Gymnasiums, mosques, schools and shops received survivors during the night. But the number of beds is very small and thousands of people spend their nights in cars or in makeshift shelters.

"Our children froze," said Ahmed Hussein, a father of five. He was forced to build a shelter near his destroyed home in Gaziantep, near the epicenter of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit the region on Monday.

"We had to burn the park benches and even some of the children's clothes, as there was nothing else," Hussein added. "They could have given us tents at least," he added with emotion, referring to the Turkish authorities.

In the face of criticism, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while inspecting the area, admitted that there were loopholes. "Of course there are shortcomings and preparing for a disaster of this kind is impossible," he said.

Since the earthquake, Turkish police have arrested about a dozen people for social media posts criticizing the government's handling of the disaster.

The Twitter website for Turkish mobile services could not be opened on Wednesday night before service was restored, due to these criticisms.

Twitter chief Elon Musk wrote in a tweet Thursday (Wednesday evening Washington time) that the network had been "informed by the Turkish government that it will soon be restarted."

In Turkey, 12,873 people were killed, according to the latest earthquake toll. At least 3,356 people were killed in Hatay province alone.

This is the worst toll since the earthquake that killed 17,000 people, including 1,000 in Istanbul in 1999.

In the garage of the main hospital in Antakya, Rania Zaboubi walks past corpses lying on the asphalt. In the dark and cold, body bags are opened one by one in search of her uncle, who was lost in the powerful earthquake. "We found my aunt, but not my uncle," she said in a troubled voice.

This black veiled Syrian refugee lost eight members of her family in this tragedy.

Other survivors examine the lined up corpses, sometimes appearing to be on the verge of fainting.

The World Health Organization has warned that the number of people affected by the earthquake may reach 23 million, including in Syria, of whom about five million are in a fragile situation.

In Syria, the death toll has so far reached 3,162, according to the Syrian authorities and rescue workers in opposition areas.

In areas where aid has been delayed, survivors feel left out. In Jenderes, located in an area controlled by the opposition factions in Syria, "even the buildings that were not collapsed by the earthquake were severely damaged," said Hassan, a resident, who requested that his family name not be mentioned.

He added, "There are between 400 and 500 people stuck under every collapsed building. Only ten people are trying to get them out, and no mechanisms are available."

In the village of Basnaya on the border with Turkey, Malek Ibrahim tirelessly clears rubble in search of thirty family members trapped under the rubble. Ten bodies have been recovered so far.

"Twenty people are stuck under the rubble," said the 40-year-old. "There are not enough words. It's a disaster. Our memories are buried with them."

"We are a distressed people in every sense of the word," he added.