Turkey is burying its dead – loved ones crushed while they slept.

Whether it be children, parents, or partners; the loss here is profound.

At a graveyard on the outskirts of Adiyaman, in southeastern Turkey, we watch as the mourners flow in.

One woman shows us a picture of her daughter, who was a victim of Monday’s earthquake.

When her body was found, she had her baby in her arms and her husband also died – a whole family wiped out in one tragedy.

Turkey earthquake – latest: Death toll rises as Erdogan admits quake response ‘shortcomings’

Her mother tells us the pain is too much to bear, saying: “I wish I’d died and my children had lived.”

Grief echoes around this city, much of which was destroyed in the quake. People say help took two days to arrive, by which time the voices below the rubble had fallen silent.

The body bags keep arriving at the cemetery. One gravedigger tells us he counted 50 in an hour, and with each arrival the anger mounts.

One female mourner cursed President Erdogan. Reliving the nightmare, she says she hears her nephew begging for help from the wreckage – help that never came.

Mr Erdogan has acknowledged “shortcomings” in his country’s response and said normal operations have resumed, but others in the city are still waiting for news.

We pass street after street of collapsed buildings.

Read more:
More than 20,500 people confirmed dead
Babies pulled from rubble ‘renew hopes’
Tempo of rescue operation has changed dramatically

On some of the twisted mounds of metal and concrete, rescuers search for those still missing as distraught relatives watch on.

Six of Mahmut Nedim Evli’s nephews have been found dead, along with many of his neighbours.

I ask him given how painful it is, why he keeps returning to the site.

“Hope is our way of living. We hope, inshallah, we can save one more life here and we will wait until the very end,” he replies.

Four days after the earthquake, hope of finding more survivors is rapidly fading and for now, the city will mourn its dead.

But with each new coffin, the same question is repeated: “If help had come sooner, could this life have been saved?”

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