Former envoy to Dhaka missing after earthquake in Turkey

Former Turkish ambassador in Dhaka Devrim Öztürk has been missing since the earthquake devastated vast swathes of southern Turkey on Monday.

He had served as the Turkish ambassador in Dhaka from 2015 to 2019.

The current Turkish envoy in Dhaka, Mustafa Osman Turan, made the disclosure in a press briefing at the embassy on Thursday. Turan took charge from the missing diplomat.

Ambassador Mustafa Osman Turan said Devrim Öztürk was stationed at the regional office of the Turkish foreign ministry in Anatolia.

The death toll from Monday's quakes, which struck in the early morning, passed 17,000 on Thursday across Turkey and Syria.

According to Reuters, the plight of hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by the earthquake grew more desperate on Thursday, while hopes faded of many more people being found alive amid the ruins of cities.

It was the biggest natural disaster to strike the region since 1999, when a similarly powerful quake killed more than 17,000 people in Turkey.

A Turkish official said the disaster posed "very serious difficulties" for the holding of an election scheduled for 14 May in which President Tayyip Erdogan has been expected to face the toughest challenge in his two decades in power.

With anger simmering over the slow delivery of aid and delays in getting the rescue effort underway, the disaster is bound to play into the vote should it still go ahead.