The response of search and rescue teams to the massive earthquakes in the country’s south was not as fast as the government wanted, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

“Although we have the largest search and rescue team in the world right now, it is a reality that search efforts are not as fast as we wanted them to be,” Erdogan said, adding that the death toll had climbed to 18,991.

Previously Erdogan accepted that the first response was slow immediately after the quake due to bad weather, damaged roads and the vast area impacting 10 provinces.

Some residents in the worst hit areas complained that no emergency workers were on the ground in the crucial first hours after the quake, a charge opposition politicians have picked up on, blaming Erdogan’s government.

Erdogan said search and rescue continued with teams joining efforts from all over the world after 94 countries offered help.

Some 24.4 million people in Syria and Turkey have been affected, according to Turkish officials and the UN, in an area spanning 450 km from Adana in the west to Diyarbakir in the east.