On Sunday, rescuers pulled several more survivors out of the rubble, six days after one of the strongest earthquakes that occurred in Turkey And Syriaas the Turkish authorities are trying to maintain order in the disaster area and have sued over the collapsed buildings.

As chances of finding new survivors dwindle, the death toll from Monday’s quake and major aftershocks in both countries has reached 33,179.29,605 in Turkey, 3,574 in Syria)although it looks like it will continue to grow.

Displaced residents in the Turkish town of Kahramanmaras near the epicenter said they had set up tents as close as possible to their damaged homes in an attempt to prevent looting.

Faced with questions about his response to the quake as he prepares for what is expected to be the toughest nationwide elections in his two decades in office, Tayyip Erdogan vowed to start rebuilding within weeks.

In Syria, the disaster hit the rebel-held northwest hardest, leaving many homeless for the second time after being displaced by more than a decade of civil war, although the region received little assistance compared to government-held areas.

“So far we have let people down in northwest Syria,” UN aid chief Martin Griffiths tweeted from the Turkish-Syrian border, where only one border crossing is open for UN supplies. “They rightfully feel left out,” Griffiths said, adding that he is focused on resolving the issue quickly.

In Turkey’s southeastern province of Hatay, a rescue team from Romania pulled a 35-year-old man named Mustafa out of a pile of rubble about 149 hours after he was buried in the quake, CNN Turk reported.

“He is in good health, he talked,” said one of the rescuers. “He said, ‘Get me out of here quickly, I’m claustrophobic.’

Anger and frustration

Many in Turkey are expressing disappointment that rescue efforts are agonizingly slow and that precious time has been wasted due to the narrow window of time needed to find living people under the rubble.

Others, especially in the southern province of Hatay near the Syrian border, say the Turkish government has delayed aid to the worst-hit region for political and religious reasons.

In Antiyaman, in southeastern Turkey, Elif Busra Ozturk waited Saturday near the ruins of a building where her uncle and aunt were trapped – presumed dead – and where the bodies of her two cousins ​​had already been found.

“For three days I waited outside for help. No one came. There were so few rescue teams that they could only intervene in places where they were sure that there were living people,” he said.

In the same construction complex, Abdullah Tash, 66, said he slept in a car next to the building where his son, daughter-in-law and four grandchildren are buried. According to him, the first rescuers arrived four days after the earthquake. The Associated Press was unable to confirm his claim.

“What good is that for the people under the rubble?” – he asked.

The feeling that not enough was being done to free the buried family members of the people also prevailed in other affected areas. In the ancient city of Antakya, devastated residents stood behind police tape on Saturday as bulldozers leveled a partially collapsed high-rise luxury apartment building.

More than 1,000 residents were in the 12-story building when the quake hit, according to family members overseeing the rescue efforts. Hundreds of people were still inside, they said, but complained that efforts to free them were slow and futile.

“This is an atrocity, I don’t know what to say” said Bediha Kanmaz, 60, whose son and 7-month-old grandson had already been dragged out of the building, dead – in each other’s arms – and whose sister-in-law was still inside.

“We open bags to see if they are ours, we check if they are our children. We even check dismembered bodies,” she said of herself and other deeply injured family members.

Kanmaz accused the government of slow response and blamed the national rescue service for not doing enough to bring people back alive.

She and others in Antakya expressed the view that the presence of a large minority of Alevis — an Anatolian Islamic tradition distinct from Sunni and Shia Islam and the Alawites in Syria — has made them a secondary priority for the government because traditionally few Alevis vote for rule. party of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. However, there was no evidence that the area was neglected for religious reasons.

Erdogan said on Wednesday that efforts were underway in the 10 provinces hit by the quake and called claims of a lack of assistance from government agencies such as the army “a lie, a false slander.” However, it has acknowledged shortcomings. Officials said rescue efforts in Khatai were initially hampered by the destruction of the local airport’s runway and poor road conditions.

However, anger at the scale of the disaster is not limited to those affected. Turkish authorities are holding or issuing arrest warrants for dozens of people allegedly involved in the construction of collapsed buildings, and the justice minister has vowed to punish all those responsible.

Kanmaz accused the developer of the apartment building in which her family died of negligence.

“If I could put my arm around the contractor’s neck… I would tear him to shreds.” He said.

The contractor, who was overseeing the construction of the 250-unit building, was arrested at Istanbul airport on Friday before boarding a plane bound for abroad, Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency reported. He was officially arrested on Saturday. His lawyer said the public was looking for a scapegoat.

Tension between Syrians and Turks

Another tension is brewing in Turkey’s multiethnic south. Some have expressed frustration that Syrian refugees who have lived in the region after fleeing their country’s devastating civil war are putting a strain on an already poor welfare system and competing with the Turkish people for resources.

“There are many poor people in Khatai, but they do not give us any benefits, they give them to the Syrians. They give so much to the Syrians,” Kanmaz said. “More Syrians live here than Turks.”

On Saturday, there were signs that tensions could ease.

But Kanmaz is sad and angry. “I’m angry. Life is over,” he said. “We live for our children, the most important thing for us is our children. We exist if they also exist. Now we are finished. Everything you see here is over.”

“We’re here to get you out”

A father and his daughter, a toddler and a 10-year-old girl, are among the survivors recovered today from the rubble of destroyed houses in the southern Turkish province of Hatay.

A video released by the Istanbul Municipality shows rescuers in Hatay pulling a 10-year-old girl alive through a hole in the floor of a damaged building before carrying her away on a stretcher.

According to the Istanbul Municipality, a girl named Kunti was buried for 147 hours.

Also in Khatai, rescuers pulled a small child from under the rubble of a collapsed building. A video released by the Turkish Health Ministry shows a child lying on a stretcher with visible bruises and covered in dust as rescuers carry him to safety.

In the center of Hatay, a man and his five-year-old daughter Emirah were pulled alive from a damaged building.

A video released today from Kocaeli province shows rescuers talking to Emira and her father while they are still trapped.