Rescue teams in Turkey and Syria are still scrambling to find survivors in the rubble of this week's devastating earthquakes. But the death toll continues to grow. And Turkey's leader is facing anger over the country's inadequate response to the disaster.

Stories of survival are still emerging three days after the first quake. Rescuers pulled out a baby from the debris of a collapsed building on Wednesday. Media reports say the child was not seriously harmed.

They say rescuers also found a family of four alive in the wreckage elsewhere in the country.

The quakes leveled buildings across vast swaths of Turkey and Syria. More than 17,000 people have been confirmed dead.
The UN says about ten million people in Syria have been affected. That is around half the country's population, which has suffered through more than a decade of civil war.

The UN says it is struggling to deliver aid.

El-Mostafa Benlamlih, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria said, "Whatever we can do, we have to do it together, driven by the humanitarian needs. And we just hope that the political considerations and so on will get out of the way and let us do our work."

The quakes are also affecting Syrian refugees. Some who died in Turkey had fled the war. Others who survived are now in an even more desperate situation.

A Syrian man said, "We have no hope. We lost everything when we fled Syria. And now we've lost it all again...no home and no jobs."

Meanwhile, Turkey's president is facing severe criticism over the government's slow response to the earthquake. During a visit to the disaster zone, Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged there had been problems.

Many have complained rescuers were slow to arrive and lacked equipment, support and expertise.