There is no power, water or food, but there is crime in the earthquake-hit Turkish city of Antakya, the head of a Croatian team of 41 rescuers and 7 search and rescue dogs, sent to Turkey to help in search and rescue operations after two powerful earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria on Monday, has told Hina.

A city of 200,000 inhabitants in southernmost Turkey, close to the border with Syria, Antakya has been razed to the ground in the earthquakes.

Antakya is located in the region of Hatay, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Syrian city of Aleppo, and the Croatian team arrived there on Thursday.

The situation in Antakya is very complex, the head of the Croatian team, Mladen Vinkovic, said on Friday, adding that there is no electricity and water supply and no rule of law, with shops having been plundered.

The first city where food can be purchased is Adana, the fifth biggest Turkish city, a five-hour drive away in one direction from Antakya.

The Croatian team arrived in the south of Turkey through the EU’s civil protection mechanism.

Vinkovic said that his team, working in two shifts, searches buildings with the help of dogs and equipment in a sector which it shares with a Ukrainian team. They do not work during the night due to the complex security situation.

Vinkovic said the coordination between international teams is excellent, their priority being to find survivors.

The Croatian team has so far found only the bodies of an elderly man and a child killed in the earthquakes and a live dog.

Vinkovic said that his team is eager to help, stressing that the operation is a race against the clock, with only two to three days left to find survivors.

The number of people killed in the two powerful earthquakes, measuring 7.8 and 7.5 on the Richter scale, has risen to 22,000, and it is believed that it will continue to grow due to a large number of people trapped under the rubble.