Fatima Talal Najm displays a picture of her father, who died in the earthquake that struck Turkey, in Mosul, Iraq. Reuters

When Talal learned that the earthquake had struck the region where her parents and other family members lived, in the southeastern Adiyaman province, she rushed there, only to find a scene of devastation.

"I couldn't find the building, the entire area was flattened," Talal, who lives in another Turkish province, said over the phone.

The combined death toll across Turkey and neighbouring Syria from Monday's tremor climbed 20,000 on Thursday.

Fatima and Aya Talal Najm look at a picture of their father, who died in the earthquake that struck Turkey. Reuters

Talal said seven of her 13-member family had died. The bodies of her father, two brothers and four nieces and nephews remained on the ground in front of the collapsed building.

"The corpses have swollen, it's the third day, the bodies are on the street, no one has removed them," she said. "If they don't bury them here, we want to take them to Iraq."

Thousands of refugees from Iraq fled into Turkey during the US-backed operation to drive out Daesh in 2016.

Daesh’s brutal rule, which emerged in Iraq and Syria in 2014, during which it killed thousands of people in the name of its narrow interpretation of Islam, came to an end in Mosul when Iraqi and international forces defeated the group in 2017.

"We left Iraq because we were looking for peace and safety; my sister and husband were killed. We faced a disaster there to face another one here ... we fled wars to die in an earthquake," Talal said.