ANKARA, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged Friday that his government's response to the massive earthquake in southern Türkiye was not as fast as desired.
"Too many buildings were damaged, unfortunately. We were not able to speed up our interventions as quickly as we had desired," he told reporters in the quake-affected Adiyaman province.
The emergency work was "very difficult" as the devastating effect of the earthquake spread over an area of 500 km, he said, adding that the harsh winter has been another obstacle.
"Most of the public workers, who would have conducted the first intervention and organizations, were themselves under the collapsed buildings," he said.
Massive earthquakes rocked southern Türkiye and northern Syria on Monday. The death toll from Monday's devastating earthquakes has climbed to 20,213 in Türkiye, while another 80,052 injuries were reported in the country, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced late Friday.
Erdogan earlier admitted that the government had shortcomings in responding to disaster on the first day, but then had better managed the situation.
But now the country has gathered "perhaps the world's largest search and rescue teams" with more than 141,000 staff, including foreign emergency teams, he said.
The Turkish president pledged to rebuild the quake-hit region within one year and provide one-year rental assistance for victims of the earthquake if they do not want to live in tents.
"We are preparing to give 15,000 liras (about 810 U.S. dollars) per household, including relocation assistance. We are preparing a comprehensive program that will enable the country to stand up again, especially in the earthquake zone," he said.
Erdogan's government has faced criticism from the quake victims that the emergency response was late and humanitarian aid was not sufficient in the earthquake zone of 10 provinces, which are home to nearly 13.5 million people.
The president said he would not "allow those who want to turn this pain into political plunder."
Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu this week blamed the government for failing to fulfill its rescue and relief efforts.
The Turkish parliament on Thursday passed a state of emergency decision in 10 provinces impacted by the earthquake for three months upon the request of the president.
Erdogan said the state would intervene in acts of malfeasance taking place during the period.
Turkish authorities launched a probe over thousands of collapsed buildings in towns and cities across the region and the police started to detain contractors of some destroyed buildings.
Mehmet Yasar Coskun, the contractor of a luxurious residence in Hatay that collapsed in the earthquakes, was detained by the police at the Istanbul airport on Friday, according to press reports. The Cumhuriyet daily said Coskun planned to go abroad.
MORE SURVIVORS SAVED
More than 81,000 disaster victims were evacuated from the provinces affected by the earthquake, Türkiye's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said.
Local broadcasters air live rescue operations of pulling out more survivors from under the rubble of collapsed buildings over 100 hours after the quakes.
Footage aired by local NTV broadcaster showed the rescue operation for a woman named Ece in southern Hatay province 111 hours after the quake.
Rescuers, relatives and local citizens burst into tears of joy after an 8-year-old boy was saved from the ruins of a building at Antakya, a district of Hatay province, 108 hours after the quake.
In the town of Iskenderun, a family of six was extracted from the rubble after 102 hours.
Raziye and Haci Murat Kilinc, two neighbors of the family, were rescued after 107 hours.
The number of survivors rescued from the rubble increased in the past three days thanks to the arrival of dozens of emergency teams in southern Kahramanmaras province, the epicenter of Monday's quake, the NTV reported.
People across Türkiye have mobilized for help and as many volunteers flocked to the quake-hit zones to help the victims, roads leading to the affected areas were clogged with vehicles carrying supplies or relief aid.
MORE AID
Many countries and global aid agencies have voiced support for quake-hit Türkiye and Syria, and some of them have sent rescue teams and relief supplies to quake-hit regions.
An 82-member China Search and Rescue Team arrived in Türkiye on Wednesday to join earthquake relief efforts in the country. Members of the Blue Sky Rescue Team and other Chinese civil relief squads were also in Türkiye to join the international rescue work. They have successfully saved four survivors so far.
Jordan's Foreign Ministry said on Friday that it would send a military field hospital to Kahramanmaras Province in southern Türkiye to help people affected by the massive earthquakes.
Algeria announced on Friday that it would provide financial assistance worth of 30 million U.S. dollars to Türkiye and 15 million U.S. dollars to Syria after the massive earthquakes that struck the two countries, according to a statement from the Algerian Prime Minister's office.
The foreign rescue efforts included a rescue team from Armenia in Adiyaman province, after a rare attempt from Yerevan which came amid a normalization process between Türkiye and Armenia.
The rescue team came to Türkiye after Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had a phone conversation with Erdogan on Feb. 7, during which he "offered condolences and expressed solidarity to the president and the people of Türkiye," according to the readout from Pashinyan's office.
An Iraqli parliament delegation arrived in Syria on Friday to extend Iraq's support to the quake-hit northern neighbor, said a parliamentary statement.
Iran's sixth batch of humanitarian aid to Syria has arrived in the port city of Latakia early on Friday, the Iranian embassy in Syria tweeted.
