The UK appeal to help earthquake survivors in Turkey and Syria has raised nearly £33m on its first day.
The appeal was led by a collection of aid charities, launched by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).
The British public already donated £27.9m, followed by the government who pledged to match the first £5m of donations. The UK government, alongside the US, China and Russia, also provided Turkey with search and rescue experts.
Both the King and Queen Consort placed a ‘generous donation’ and the appeal was supported by the Prince and Princess of Wales.
David Wrightwick, CEO of medical aid charity UK Med, a charity that sends NHS professionals to disaster zones, told the BBC his team headed to Turkey to assess where their help was needed the most, before deploying hundreds of NHS medics.
A British medical relief worker has said the situation in Turkey and Syria after the earthquake is some of the worst he has seen in his 30-year career.
Steve Mannion, an orthopaedic surgeon with UK Med, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that patients were being treated in tents put up in hospital car parks, sometimes in below-zero temperatures and snowy conditions.
He said: “I have been a medical disaster relief worker for 30 years but the level of devastation here in the most affected areas is truly awful.
“Indeed the numbers of houses and buildings destroyed and the damage and the effect on the civilian population is one of the worst I’ve seen.”