The devastation in Turkey and Northern Syria from two earthquakes is on a scale unmatched in decades and it covers an area already ravaged by war, poverty and a refugee crisis.

Thousands are dead and the number of people who’ve lost their lives is likely to increase dramatically. This was a region where there hadn’t been an earthquake for more than 100 years, and there was no indication one was coming, so the level of preparedness would be less than in areas used to tremors. 

President Erdogan of Turkey said today this was the biggest disaster to hit the country since 1939. 

Meanwhile in Northern Syria, the damage hit an area where the infrastructure and health systems have been wrecked by years of war, with doctors telling the BBC that they are deciding at the doors of the hospital which patients they have the capacity to try to save. 

Newsnight’s Diplomatic Editor Mark Urban reports.

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