Turkey moves to restore law and order as looters exploit the earthquake devastation and food supplies dwindle

• Turkey's president said he would use emergency powers to take action against earthquake looters.
• Authorities made dozens of arrests and seized stolen items on Saturday, according to local news.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday his government would crack down on those involved in looting or breaking the law in the wake of a devastating earthquake that hit the country earlier this week.

Following the mass destruction and mayhem caused by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Turkey and Syria, circulating reports of looting of damaged stores and buildings in Turkey have increased security concerns for the state, Erdogan said.

"We've declared a state of emergency," the prime minister said during a visit to a disaster zone, according to Reuters. "It means that, from now on, the people who are involved in looting or kidnapping should know that the state's firm hand is on their backs."

It is unclear, however, which kidnapping incidents Erdogan was alluding to.

On the same day, the Austrian army relief unit and German rescue teams, and other search-and-rescue workers temporarily suspended their search operations, citing similar concerns about factional violence, supply scarcity, and hygiene issues. A spokesman for the army said their operations were facing "an increasingly difficult security situation," BBC News reported.

Unverified videos circulating on social media show scenes of looting, aid convoys being hijacked, and alleged looters being beaten by the authorities and by angry mobs.

A man searching for one of his colleagues in a collapsed building in Antakya, a city in the south of the country, told Reuters, "People were smashing the windows and fences of shops and cars."

Turkish security authorities arrested at least 98 people accused of taking advantage of the devastation on Saturday, anonymous sources told Turkey's state-run media outlet Anadolu Agency. They reportedly seized $11,000 and other stolen items like cell phones, laptops, and jewelry.

"We're guarding our homes, our cars. The looters are looting our homes. There's nothing left to say, unfortunately. We're destroyed, we're shaken. What we have gone through is a nightmare," said Hatay resident Aylin Kabasakal, per AFP.

Food and water supplies are becoming increasingly scarce

Food and water supplies are becoming increasingly scarce, however, and many people are in desperate need of essentials.

"There's a phone shop near mine where all the phones have been stolen," a shopkeeper Nizamettin Bilmez told Euronews.

"Supermarkets are ok. If people come to take nappies, food, and drinks, it's normal because no help has arrived for one to two days. But some people are strange, they come to take a cooker or a coffee machine," said Bilmez.

In a report by The Guardian, those sheltering in Göksun — a town 70 miles from the center of the earthquake — are very concerned about a lack of supplies as "desperate people searched for food" in the debris.

Monday's earthquake destroyed more than 6,000 buildings in Turkey, and the overall death toll in both Syria and Turkey has surpassed 28,000 people this weekend.