A huge chasm shows the scale of destruction left behind from the devastating earthquake which struck Turkey and Syria as the death toll reaches 24,000.
Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said 20,937 lives have so far been lost in their country, while reports from Syria say that at least 3,500 people have died.
The United Nations has also warned that millions of survivors have been rendered homeless, with their estimates indicating that 5.3 million Syrians have been displaced from their homes as a result of the earthquake.
UN aid chief Martin Griffiths today (11 February) said the disaster was the 'worst event in 100 years in this region', and described Turkey's response to the disaster as 'extraordinary'.
He also expressed a hope that international aid sent to Syria would end up helping areas of the country held by the Syrian government and opposition groups in the ongoing civil war, but this was 'not clear yet'.
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the area on Monday (6 February) and was followed by a series of aftershocks, causing massive devastation to areas in Turkey and Syria with entire towns destroyed and the ground torn apart.
Drone footage of the devastation has revealed that entire fields have been ripped asunder and between them now lies a huge chasm that is both incredibly wide and vastly deep.
Rows of trees and rolling hills have been eviscerated and in their place lies wreckage and rubble.
It is believed that Turkey itself has moved about three metres as a result of the earthquake and the footage from the site of the disaster clearly displays that the gap in the ground is significantly larger than that.
The death toll is expected to rise further as rescue and recovery efforts are ongoing and more people who are either trapped and in need of rescue or dead will be found.
Griffiths told Sky News that he expected the death toll to increase by the tens of thousands, and that he was 'sure it will double or more' as recovery efforts uncovered the bodies of more victims.
He explained that '72 hours is the golden period' when it comes to saving people from natural disasters but noted that rescue efforts were still managing to bring people out of the rubble alive.
Sadly, he warned that rescue efforts were likely to be in their final stages as the hopes of finding more people alive dwindled, and said it would be 'incredibly difficult to decide when to stop this rescue phase'.
If you’d like to help those who’ve been affected by the recent devastating events unfolding in Turkey and Syria you can donate to the British Red Cross' emergency appeal.
Featured Image Credit: iHA / REUTERS / Alamy Stock PhotoTopics: World News, News
Joe Harker