Over 46,000 people have been killed in the earthquakes that struck Türkiye and Syria and the toll is expected to soar, while rescue teams continue their desperate search for signs of life under the rubble.

With 264,000 apartments destroyed and many people still missing, Türkiye is dealing with its worst modern disaster. There are also growing concerns in Syria, with the World Food Programme (WFP) pressuring authorities in the northwest to give access and help hundreds of thousands ravaged by the earthquakes.

Twelve days after the quake hit, workers from Kyrgyzstan tried to save a Syrian family of five from the rubble of a building in Antakya city in southern Türkiye.

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Three people, including a child, were rescued alive. The mother and father survived, but the child died later of dehydration, the rescue team said. One older sister and a twin did not make it.

A member of the rescue team said: "We heard shouts when we were digging. When we find people who are alive we are always happy."

Workers asked for silence and for everybody to crouch as the teams climbed further to the top of the rubble where the family was found to listen for any more sounds using electronic detectors. Workers later stopped the search operations as excavators arrived and climbed up to begin clearing it.

The death toll in Türkiye stands at 40,642 from the quake, while neighbouring Syria has reported more than 5,800 deaths, a toll that has not changed for days.

WFP Director David Beasley said the Syrian and Turkish governments had been cooperating well, but its operations were being hampered in northwestern Syria.

The agency last week said it was running out of stocks there and called for more border crossings to be opened from Türkiye.

"The northwestern Syrian authorities are not giving us the access we need," said Beasley. "That is bottlenecking our operations. That has to get fixed straight away. Time is running out and we are running out of money.

"Our operation is about $50 million a month for our earthquake response alone so unless Europe wants a new wave of refugees, we need to get the support we need."

In Syria, already shattered by more than a decade of civil war, the bulk of fatalities have been in the northwest.

While many international rescue teams have left the vast quake zone in Türkiye, domestic teams continued to search through flattened buildings on Saturday hoping to find more survivors who defied the odds. 

Experts say most rescues occur in the 24 hours following an earthquake.

Aid organizations say the survivors will need help for months to come with so much crucial infrastructure destroyed.

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