White Helmets say search efforts for quake survivors in northwest Syria about to end

AMMAN: Search operations for more survivors beneath the rubble are about to end in the opposition north west of Syria eight days after the devastating earthquake, the White Helmets main rescue group said on Tuesday.

"It's about to come to a close. The indications we have are that there are not any (survivors) but we are trying to do our final checks and on all sites," said Raed al Saleh who heads the White Helmets group that has carried out the major rescue operations in the devastated region.

The group, which has rescue workers across the region where whole neighbourhoods and villages were wiped out, said they were also collecting names of the missing people in the enclave where the group's latest death toll stood at 2,274 with thousands injured.