Piles of debris, cars, and in some cases, people, were carried away by fast-racing floodwater, after heavy rains last week.

Donors at a European Union-led conference on Monday pledged 7 billion euros ($7.5 bln) to help to rebuild Turkey after last month's devastating earthquakes, while Ankara estimated the costs at more than ten times that.

The European Union's lending arm, the European Investment Bank, is to provide 500 million euros ($540 mln) for Turkey's post-earthquake rebuilding efforts, suspending an almost-total ban on financing for Turkey.

Ankara is scrambling to find reconstruction funding as the economic toll from last month’s earthquakes tops $100 billion, posing challenges for a country already struggling with a depressed currency.

The United States has announced $50 million in fresh funding for victims of last month’s powerful earthquakes that caused billions in damage to both Syria and Turkey.  An international donors conference in Brussels was held Monday,

The EIB stopped virtually all lending in Turkey after a row over oil and gas drilling off Cyprus in 2019, but the severity of last month's earthquake, which killed nearly 56,000 people in Turkey and neighbouring Syria,