It has asked the United Nations to help it find 45,000 body bags. The death toll from Tuesday's catastrophic earthquake climbed to more than 12,000 Monday, and authorities said hope is running out for the estimated 35,000 people still trapped beneath the rubble. Turkish and United Nations officials said the final toll could reach 40,000. Tens of thousands of people were injured in the quake, thousands of them seriously. All of these figures are expected to grow as authorities begin reaching hard-hit outlying areas which, to date, have received little attention.
Masked workers move a corpse.
The intense heat has made the problem of dealing with thousands of corpses a major problem. BBC The magnitude-7.4 earthquake was one of the 20th century's most powerful and, aside from the horrific death toll, may have shattered the already anemic Turkish economy. Centered near the city of Izmit, the temblor devastated the heavily populated region's of northwestern Turkey. The United Nations estimates as many as 35,000 people are still missing, most of them crushed beneath pancaked concrete apartment buildings. By early Friday, the search for survivors had become critical as the window of survivability began to close.