News Live Updates, February 09: Rescue efforts continued on Thursday as the death toll neared 20,000, but hopes of finding survivors diminished on the fourth day of rescue workers. The combined death toll in Turkey and Syria from Monday’s devastating earthquake has risen to 19,823, The Guardian reported. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, announced that 16,546 had died. In Syria, already devastated by nearly 12 years of civil war, more than 3,000 people have died, according to the government and a rescue service in the rebel-held northwest. President Tayyip Erdogan Wednesday admitted there were problems with his government’s initial response to a devastating earthquake in southern Turkey.

Meanwhile, the first United Nations convoy carrying emergency aid to a rebel-held area of Syria stricken three days ago by a deadly earthquake crossed from Turkey on Thursday. The trucks, with materials from jerrycans to blankets, went via the Bab Al Hawa crossing to Idlib city in an area of northwest Syria where 4 million people, many uprooted by civil war, had relied on aid even before Monday’s quake.

As a part of India’s ‘Operation Dosth’, the sixth plane carrying rescue personnel, essentials and medical equipment for earthquake relief efforts reached Turkey on Thursday. The sixth flight carried more rescue teams, dog squads, and essential medicines for the quake-hit country.