Hope and despair in the search for survivors in Kahramanmaras, a city devastated by the earthquake in Turkey

Rescues continue in Turkey as death toll rises 3:36

Kahramanmaras, Turkey (CNN) --

The body of a 4-year-old girl wrapped in a pink blanket was recovered Wednesday from the rubble of a building in the city of Kahramanmaras, Turkey.

She is one of the last victims of the huge earthquake on Monday.

Elsewhere, bulldozers unearthed the body of a man, believed to be a Syrian refugee in his 40s, who appeared to be lying on a mattress, like many who died after the quake, at around 4am.

Before and after the earthquake in Turkey seen from the sky 1:04

In the room where he was found, there were children's toys and a box for a Barbie doll.

It was not clear if anyone else was under the rubble.

In a neighboring building, also collapsed, rescue teams were digging from above to try to reach one or possibly two people believed to be alive.

They brought up a generator to power a hand-held pneumatic drill;

the man who directed it removed the rubble with his bare hands.

It appeared to have detected signs of life under the rubble, but rescuers dismissed a waiting ambulance, saying much work still needed to be done.

More than two days after the deadly earthquake and aftershocks rocked the city, rescue teams continue to search through the rubble, picking up the pace as the day progressed.

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• Hope after tragedy: the emotional rescues of survivors after the earthquake in Turkey and Syria

More than 11,000 people have been confirmed dead so far in southern Turkey and neighboring Syria.

Heavy machinery has increasingly been introduced into areas where a day before cautious diggers used their bare hands to dig through the rubble.

The risk to people trapped alive must be weighed against their chances of surviving many more hours in the bitter cold.

In the lower part of the city, where the buildings are predominantly older and the damage is worse, the sound of mechanical excavators is now omnipresent.

Although some people are still being pulled out of the rubble alive, most of the time rescue teams are recovering bodies.

A man who was working as a volunteer at one of the Kahramanmaras hospitals told CNN on Wednesday that there were 350 bodies in the mortuary that had not been picked up by their relatives because they too had died.

A girl sits near the place where a building collapsed after the earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, on Wednesday.

Credit: Dilara Senkaya/Reuters

As Turkey remains in shock and the death toll mounts, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived on Wednesday in the southern region of Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of Monday's deadly earthquake, to see for himself the devastation.

Flanked by officials, he visited an emergency relief zone set up by the country's disaster management agency, AFAD.

In the sports stadium were rows and rows of gleaming white tents, intended to house some of the thousands of families who have lost their homes.

More troops arrived on the Wednesday morning before his visit and the police presence also appeared to have been stepped up.

• The reasons why the earthquake in Turkey was so strong

In a televised news conference from the relief center, Erdogan said the government's goal was to rebuild the region "within a year" and that people would receive help with emergency housing.

"We cannot allow our citizens to stay on the streets," Erdogan said.

"Our State is using all its resources with AFAD and the municipalities. We will continue to do so."

He acknowledged that the government's initial response "had some problems" in terms of natural gas supply and roads, but said the situation was "under control."

The government plans to hand out 10,000 Turkish lira (about US$531) to help the affected families, he added.

"Today we are better, tomorrow we will be even better," he said.

Very few buildings in the city of Kahramanmaras have survived the quakes, although those in the newer neighborhoods, located higher in the valley, suffered less obvious damage.

In the lower part of the city, many people could be heard crying and wailing next to the collapsed buildings where they or their relatives lived until the disaster struck.

Some clung to photographs of their loved ones under the rubble, not so much in the hope of being rescued but as an act of remembrance, holding up snapshots of their children or wedding photos and saying "they are gone."

Some anger could also be seen among the rubble, as desperate survivors tried to urge rescue teams to search for their lost loved ones first.

In addition to the huge death toll, the earthquake, one of the strongest to hit the Middle East in more than 100 years, has left tens of thousands injured.

• Why the earthquake in Turkey and Syria is one of the deadliest of this century?

A state of emergency has been declared for three months in 10 Turkish provinces, and aid agencies have warned of "catastrophic" repercussions in the northwest of the country, where millions of vulnerable and displaced people already depended on humanitarian aid.

In Kahramanmaras, all people can do is watch and wait in anguish as the clock ticks down to find the survivors.

-- Isil Sariyuce, Hamdi Alkhshali and Hande Atay Alam contributed to this report.

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