PRAYING FOR MIRACLES

>>Fears Turkey-Syria toll could hit 10,000 >> Brit teams to help rescue in the rubble

- CHRIS HUGHES, RACHEL HAGAN and FLORA BYATT

INTERNATIONAL search and rescue teams were last night racing to Turkey and Syria to help look for survivors of the earthquake, amid fears the death toll could hit 10,000.

Officials said more than 3500 people have so far died and hundreds more are buried beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings in freezing temperatures and with the risk of aftershocks.

About 1000 rescuers from around the globe, including 74 Brits, will join local teams trying to pull victims from the destruction.

UK relief worker Atiqur Rahman, who was in Turkey working, is helping with the search for survivors in Antakya. The 37-year-old, who owns

Yahya's Indian Grill in Stoke, escaped injury but a colleagues son is missing.

He said: The only way I can describe it is armageddon. There are people stuck, screaming; children dead. There are people dead in the streets. There is no electricity or gas. People are building fires on street corners.