Where homes became tombs: Kahramanmaras reels from devastating earthquake

Turkey says more than 1 million are in temporary shelters and need rehousing, as Peter Smith reports

By ITV News Producer Cat Dinneny

One week ago, millions of people in southern Turkey and Syria were asleep in their beds when they were struck by the region’s worst earthquake in nearly a century.

Kahramanmaras was the epicentre, rocked not only by the initial earthquake, but by an equally powerful aftershock right at its heart.

In this city, homes have become tombs.

More than 33,000 people have now died and that number just keeps on rising. How many bodies are still buried beneath the rubble is unknown.

There’s little chance of finding survivors now, but rescuers - and families - do not give up.

Fuat Kurt, who works for a Turkish search and rescue team, told us: "I believe in my heart we can still find some people alive here. We haven’t lost hope."

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For those who have survived this natural disaster, a new humanitarian crisis is emerging.

The sheer number of homeless is too much for makeshift camps to cope.

We came across a family of 15 Syrian refugees crammed into one makeshift tent on the outskirts of a camp.

That's what this city - the beating heart of this part of Turkey - has been reduced to. A stadium and its car park, once a destination for entertainment, now a home for those who have nowhere else to go.

Madjid el Helebi said: "We have applied to be given a tent three times since the earthquake. We have young babies in here, but we were told there’s just nothing left."

One of his children, Malik, was born under the tarpaulin three days ago.

On the other side of the city, outside what used to be a hospital, a pop up pharmacy is being run by volunteers.

Every day people queue for vital medicine; not only to treat injuries sustained in the quake, but to manage long term illnesses.

But pharmacists tell us they are desperately short, and there are already reports of a scabies outbreak in the camps.

Waiting to be seen we find Suphiye ali Beyler and her three-year-old son.

They have spent the last week sleeping in a park, unable to get a tent. Today they're trying to get treatment for their son, who's sick with diarrhoea.

As night falls across the city, families huddle around fires to keep warm. But keeping spirits up is a different matter, when there's no end in sight.