Three rescue groups say that unrest in southern Turkey has made it harder to help people in some places after the deadly earthquake on Monday. The quake has killed more than 28,000 people in Turkey and Syria, and there isn’t much hope of finding many more survivors, even though there have been some “miraculous rescues.”

German rescue workers and the Austrian army stopped looking for the missing people on Saturday because of fights between unnamed groups. One rescuer said security would likely worsen as food supplies run out.

Turkey’s president said he would punish anyone who broke the law by using emergency powers. BBC.com reports that early Saturday morning, a spokesperson for the Austrian army said that unidentified groups were fighting in the province of Hatay. As a result, dozens of people from the Austrian Forces Disaster Relief Unit had to take shelter in a base camp with people from other international groups.

Lieutenant Colonel Pierre Kugelweis said in a statement that fighting between different groups in Turkey is getting worse. “The chances of saving a life bears no reasonable relation to the safety risk.”

Austria stopped its rescue efforts for a few hours, but then the country’s defence ministry said that the Turkish army had stepped in to protect the area, allowing rescue efforts to start again.

The German branch of the search and rescue group ISAR and the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (TSW) also stopped working because of security concerns.

ISAR spokesman Stefan Heine said, “There are more and more reports of clashes between different factions, and shots have also been fired.”

Steven Bayer, in charge of operations at Isar, said security would worsen as food, water, and hope became harder to find. “We are watching the security situation very closely as it develops,” he said.

Reuters reported that German rescue teams said they would return to work as soon as Turkish officials said it was safe. On Saturday, Turkey’s Vice President Fuat Oktay said that 24,617 people have died in Turkey.

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Even though Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hasn’t said anything about the trouble in Hatay, he did say again on Saturday that the government would take action against criminals in the area.

During a visit to the disaster area today, Mr Erdogan said, “We have declared a state of emergency.  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.”

AFP says that on Saturday, state media said that 48 people had been caught stealing. State media in Turkey noted that several guns, cash, jewellery, and bank cards were taken.

A 26-year-old man in Antakya looking for a coworker in a building that had fallen told Reuters, “People were breaking the windows and fences of shops and cars.”

Authorities in Turkey’s Gaziantep and Sanliurfa provinces have reportedly apprehended 12 persons in connection with the collapse of several buildings. The DHA news agency says that some of them were contractors.

Mr Oktay told reporters late Saturday that 113 arrest warrants had been issued over the buildings. This means that more arrests are likely to happen.

At least 6,000 buildings fell in Turkey, which makes people wonder if the large-scale tragedy could have been avoided and if President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government could have done more to save lives.

With elections coming up, the president’s future is in doubt. He has been in power for 20 years, but his calls for national unity have been ignored.

Mr Erdogan has said that the response was not good enough, but during a visit to one disaster zone, he seemed to blame fate: “Such things have always happened. It’s part of destiny’s plan.”