Earthquake deaths to top 50,000 - UN relief chief

The death toll from a massive earthquake in Turkey and Syria will "double or more" from its current level of 28,000, UN relief chief Martin Griffiths has said.

Mr Griffiths arrived yesterday in Turkey's southern city of Kahramanmaras, the epicentre of the first 7.8-magnitude tremor that upturned millions of lives in the pre-dawn hours of Monday.

He said of the death toll in an interview with Sky News: "I think it is difficult to estimate precisely as we need to get under the rubble but I'm sure it will double or more."

"We haven't really begun to count the number of dead," he said.