Turkish and Kurdish communities in Germany have launched donation drives to send money, warm clothes and blankets to victims of a devastating earthquake that tore through Türkiye and northwest Syria on Monday.

As news of the disaster spread and sparked frantic appeals for help, volunteers began collecting aid in Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich for the thousands left injured or homeless after their homes were destroyed.

Germany has around 2.3 million people of Turkish origin, the largest Turkish diaspora community in the world, according to the Turkish Community in Germany.

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Levent Cukur has coordinated an aid drive in the boxing gym he runs in Munich.

"We didn't expect it to go this crazy, it's mad. We thought we would fill two vans and then send them off but it hasn't stopped since 10 this morning," says Cukur.

As he spoke, a group of people were loading boxes of donations onto trucks. The first batch is scheduled to leave for Türkiye on Thursday.

"It is currently very cold in the affected regions and people urgently need blankets, warm clothing and boots," said Tunca Karakas, a member of cultural association Tuerkisch-Deutscher Kreis.

Rescuers were still trying to save people trapped under rubble on Tuesday as the death toll from the earthquake passed 5,000.

"We are throwing ourselves into work," said Faruk Akalan, a representative in Germany of the Kurdish Red Crescent, which has already sent €250,000 ($268,000) to the affected regions.

'It's going to be a challenge'

"You can't say that 100 hours is the last chance. There is always a miracle in such an earthquake that someone does survive for a long time," Stephan Heinz, a dog handler, shared his hope of finding survivors under the rubble.

"If people are able to protect themselves from the cold in some way, if they have access to water, if they are not seriously injured, but are only buried they can survive for quite a long time." 

The Turkish Community in Germany is pointing the community to existing donation drives.

"Sending money is better than sending goods because people themselves know best what they need and can use the money to buy it," said group chairperson Gokay Sofuoglu.

"We really have to work very carefully, very prudently, in order to protect ourselves, and that is an enormous challenge," Timo Eilhardt, Chief Engineer Of German Agency For Technical Relief, explained the challenges that rescue workers face.

"The weather is not exactly playing into our hands either. It's quite cold down there, it's going to be sub-zero, at least overnight and that's going to be a challenge."