Late night update

Hello readers. A week after two 7-plus magnitude earthquakes devastated Turkey and Syria, leaving more than 35,000 people dead and tens of thousands of others injured, search and rescue teams have shifted away from finding survivors to locating bodies of the deceased.

The United Nations Security Council met behind closed doors on Monday to discuss the situation of aid access to northwest Syria, which has received limited assistance compared to Turkey and the areas in Syria controlled by the government of Bashar al-Assad. UN aid chief Martin Griffiths also met with the Syrian president on Monday.

Assad said later on Monday that he would agree to allow the UN access to two more border crossings with Turkey to allow aid to come into the country, which would help deliver crucial supplies to the rebel-held northwest.

Our Istanbul correspondent Levent Kemal reported that the Turkish government is considering relocating hundreds of thousands of Syrians from 10 of the country's provinces after the twin earthquakes.

With the death toll expected to rise even further, it is likely to surpass the figures from Turkey's 1939 earthquake, which would make it the deadliest in modern Turkish history.

MEE is taking a pause in coverage for now but will pick back up soon. For the latest updates, make sure to follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.