All over the Netherlands collections are taking place for the victims of Monday’s earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. Mosques, worker associations and other organisations are coordinating donations of clothes, tents, sleeping bags, long-life food, hygiene and baby products, broadcaster NOS reported.

In Zaandam, for example, eight girls have set up a collection point while in Vijfhuizen so many donations have been made it will take 16 lorries to take them to the disaster zone. ‘Everyone is helping, Turks, Moroccans, the Dutch, you name it,’ organiser Gülten Isci told the broadcaster.

In Arnhem, Halit Bayramoglu’s plan to send two vans with goods has become four lorries, he told local news station Omroep Gelderland. ‘At one point, there were 180 people busy here, and 80% of them I did not know.’

‘Most of the stuff being donated is brand new which means people are going into town to buy it,’ he said. ‘It is wonderful to see, even though it is such a sad story.’

Many people are also volunteering to help with the rescue effort and will work on the ground under professional rescue and aid workers, RTV Oost reported.

Overnight the death toll in the region neared 8,200, of whom nearly 6,000 are in Turkey and the rest in Syria.

The Dutch Urban Search and Rescue squad, with a team of eight dogs, has pulled six people alive from the rubble so far.