A plea for help that was issued on Twitter following a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Turkey has led to more than 17,000 responses, including offers of accomodation for those who have been left homeless by the disaster.

Erhan Çelik, who is a journalist for Turkey’s Kanal 7 TV station, asked his more than 22,000 Twitter followers if they were willing to offer those who had been left homeless by the quake a place to stay. He asked those who were able to offer shelter to the victims to email him and he used the hashtag #ÊvimEvindirVan in his tweet, which means “my home is your home, Van,” according to The Guardian. Van is one of the cities that was badly hit by the quake, which struck Sunday and has killed more than 200 people.

Around 7 hours after he sent his initial tweet, Çelik tweeted, “There are 17,000 mails in my inbox. I’ll send them all to the Istanbul governorate. I thank you all in the name of earthquake victims.”

In addition to sending him emails, Çelik’s followers tweeted their offers. “I am a policeman in Istanbul. We can house one family,” one person tweeted. Another follower said, “My house is small but I can sleep in my daughter’s room for a while. I am waiting for a family of two or three people.”

Soon after Çelik revealed the number of emails he had received, the authorities in Istanbul said that they would welcome offers of accommodation directly and that there was no need to email Çelik. A 24-hour hotline has been set up for those who wish to offer accommodation to the victims.

Çelik also used Twitter to encourage 3 mobile phone providers — Turkcell, Avea and Vodafone — to offer free texts and talk time to people in the region hit by the quake after some people claimed that they were not able to contact relatives and friends they believed were trapped in crumbling buildings.

People are also turning to Facebook to orchestrate relief efforts. Users of the social network are sharing emergency phone numbers and are creating pages to provide instructions on where to donate aid. Some freight companies are offering to deliver aid free of charge.

Meanwhile, Çelik became mixed up in a contentious issue after he tweeted the message, “My deepest condolences,” in both Turkish and Kurdish. Van has a mostly Kurdish population and is a centre of activity for the pro-independence Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is banned in Turkey.

Some tweets related to the quake included anti-Kurdish insults. Çelik tweeted later, “It is very sad that the tweet i posted in the early morning caused discontent. While one side shows such fantastic solidarity, the racists are on the other.” He then tweeted his dual-language message of condolence again.