THE death toll from Monday’s devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria has soared above 5,000, with some experts predicting that the tally could reach as high as 20,000.

Thousands of people have been injured by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake but many more have yet to be accounted for.

Search teams and emergency aid from 30 countries poured into the affected areas on Tuesday as rescuers dug through the remains of buildings flattened by the earthquake and the reported staggering 145 aftershocks. 

But with the damage spread over a wide area, the massive relief operation has struggled to reach devastated towns and voices that had been crying out from the rubble fell silent.

“We could hear their voices, they were calling for help,” said Ali Silo, whose two relatives could not be saved in the Turkish town of Nurdagi.

In the end it was left to Mr Silo, a Syrian who arrived from Hama a decade ago, and other residents to recover the bodies and those of two other victims.

The quake cut a swath of destruction that stretched hundreds of miles across south-east Turkey and neighbouring Syria, toppling thousands of buildings and heaping more misery on a region blighted by Syria’s 12-year civil war and refugee crisis.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that 13 million people were affected in some way and declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces in order to manage the response.

Opposition party the HDP suspended political activity to join the relief efforts and called for its allies abroad to mobilise what resources can be mustered to assist.

The United Nations said that it was “exploring all avenues” to get supplies to the quake-damaged area in Syria which is divided between government-held territory and the country’s opposition-held enclave, which is surrounded by government forces.

Syria’s UN ambassador Bassam Sabbagh told reporters that the UN secretary-general “assured us that the UN will do all that’s possible to help Syria in this very difficult situation.”