Türkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that last week’s powerful earthquakes were “as big as atomic bombs” and have killed 35,418 in the country’s southern region, writes newseu.cgtn.

Erdogan also said that hundreds of thousands of buildings were uninhabitable across southern Türkiye, adding “any country would face issues we did during such a disaster.”

But he did concede that building regulation needs revising, saying “collapsed buildings reminded the government of the need for stricter construction rules” in a televised speech, adding that his government would continue work until the last person was rescued from the ruins in the quake-hit area.

Seven survivors were pulled from the rubble in Türkiye on Tuesday, more than a week after two devastating earthquakes, as the focus of the aid effort shifted to helping people now struggling without food or shelter in near-freezing winter conditions.

The combined death toll in Türkiye and neighboring Syria has continued to mount, exceeding 37,000 on Tuesday.

The seven rescued on Tuesday included two brothers, aged 17 and 21, who were pulled from an apartment block in Kahramanmaras province, and a woman rescued from a destroyed building in the southern Turkish city of Antakya.