The death toll in Syria from a devastating earthquake crossed 3,150 while the first U.N. aid convoy reached the country Thursday.

A total of 3,162 people are now known to have died with more than 5,000 injures in the quake, according to the Syrian state media and a rescue service operating in the opposition-held northwest

The Syrian Civil Defense, better known as the White Helmets, announced Thursday that the death toll in northwestern Syria had risen to more than 1,900, with more than 2,950 injured.

The number, however, is likely to rise significantly due to the presence of hundreds of families still under the rubble of destroyed buildings and homes, the organizations said in a statement.

It added that teams were continuing search and rescue operations amid very difficult conditions, about 75 hours after the violent earthquake that struck the area.

The White Helmets also said the number of completely collapsed buildings in northwestern Syria has risen to 418 and more than 1,300 collapsed partially, in addition to the thousands of others that have developed cracks.

The state-run SANA news agency, meanwhile, cited the Health Ministry to report over 1,262 deaths and 2,285 injuries in regime-held areas.

Syrian regime's Health Minister Hassan al-Ghobash said that ambulance and medical personnel have been tirelessly working for over 55 hours to reach every affected individual, extracting them from the debris and transporting the injured to hospitals for medical care.

"Despite the exhaustive efforts, rescue teams are still managing to find and save survivors trapped beneath the rubble as of Wednesday," he said.

The affected areas were initially difficult to access, and the number of victims is rising as the recovery work progresses.

UN aid arrives

The first U.N. convoy carrying humanitarian aid entered Syria on Thursday at the Bab al Hawa border crossing with Türkiye.

The convoy consists of six trucks carrying aid supplies like tents and hygiene products, according to U.N. sources.

The aid will help some of the most vulnerable people affected by Monday's magnitude 7.8 earthquake that killed over 14,000 people in southeastern Türkiye.

"The first U.N. aid convoy entered today," said Mazen Alloush, media officer at the crossing.

Alloush noted the delivery had been expected before Monday's quake, but said: "It could be considered an initial response from the United Nations, and it should be followed, as we were promised, with bigger convoys to help our people."

The aid delivery mechanism from Türkiye into opposition-held Syria through the Bab al-Hawa crossing is the only way U.N. assistance can reach civilians without passing through areas controlled by Syrian government forces.

While the crossing itself was not affected by the quake, the road leading to it was damaged, temporarily disrupting operations, a U.N. spokesman said earlier Tuesday.

U.N. special envoy Geir Pederson said Thursday that the emergency response in Syria should "not be politicized" following "one of the most catastrophic earthquakes the region has seen in about a century."

He told reporters in Geneva that the U.N. had been "assured today that we would be able to get through the first assistance today."

Planes carrying aid from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Russia, Iran and other countries have landed since Monday in Syrian government-controlled airports in Damascus, Aleppo and Latakia.

The U.N.'s resident Syria coordinator El-Mostafa Benlamlih told AFP on Wednesday that no fresh deliveries of humanitarian aid have been sent to the rebel-held northwest from within Syria in about three weeks.

He said the U.N. has some stocks in the area – enough to feed 100,000 people for one week.

Speaking from Damascus, Benlamlih said the destruction in government-held provinces "is huge."

"But we know also that the destruction in the northwest is huge and we need to get there to assess."

Türkiye to open more crossings

Earlier, a Turkish official confirmed the Bab al-Hawa border crossing was open for humanitarian aid and authorities will open a few more crossings after two days if security is sound.

The United Nations has described access to the opposition-controlled area of Syria through Bab al-Hawa as a "lifeline" for some 4 million people who it says rely on humanitarian assistance.

Most of the residents are people who have been displaced – sometimes multiple times – by fighting in Syria. They are suffering from additional factors including malnutrition, cholera, cold winter weather and now the aftermath of the earthquakes.

U.N. aid from Türkiye served 2.7 million people in northwest Syria per month last year compared with 43,500 people a month who received aid from routes within Syria since August 2021.

Bab al-Hawa is the only open crossing of what were originally four border crossings from Türkiye to northern Syria.

Prior to the quake, the Syrian regime had wanted humanitarian aid to flow only through the areas of the country it controlled, with the aim of depriving the opposition in the north of further resources.

This approach had given rise to fears that the government could stop vital aid for earthquake victims from reaching opposition-held areas.

Activists had previously reported that although no aid was being transported to the area after the earthquake, the bodies of Syrians from Türkiye were being transported across the border crossing instead.

Millions of Syrian refugees live in Türkiye. The border authority published photos of the minibusses from which body bags were being transferred to other vehicles.

According to the border authority, more than 300 bodies of Syrians have come to Syria via Bab al-Hawa since the earthquake Monday.