AID agencies and governments stepped up a scramble to send help to earthquake-hit parts of Turkey and Syria today, as rescuers continued to pull survivors out of the rubble more than 200 hours after devastation swept the region.

Politics hindered efforts to rush in aid, as many survivors still waiting for tents slept outside in freezing weather.

Efforts to help survivors as well as count the dead and injured in Syria were marred by the continued divisions from 12 years of civil war.