Earthquake in Turkey, Syria: Death toll crosses 8000

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Turkey: The death toll from the devastating earthquakes climbed over 8000 in Turkey & Syria on Wednesday. The death toll continues to rise amid widespread devastation. The death toll in both countries is expected to rise further as the rescue operations are hampered by bad weather. 

The death toll from Monday’s devastating earthquakes climbed to 5,434 in Turkey and 812 in Syria on Tuesday, while calls mounted to lift the US sanctions on Syria, state media reports say.

The number of injured rose to 31,777 and 1,449 respectively in Turkey and Syria, according to Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca and the media office at the Aleppo governorate headquarters.

A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Turkey’s southern province of Kahramanmaras at 4:17 a.m. local time on Monday, followed by a magnitude 6.4 quake a few minutes later in the country’s southern province of Gaziantep and a magnitude 7.6 earthquake at 1:24 p.m. local time in Kahramanmaras.

Turkey’s southern province of Hatay and Syria’s northern Aleppo city suffered the biggest loss of lives, while Lebanon, Israel and Cyprus also felt the tremor.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency on Tuesday in 10 of the country’s provinces hit by the quakes.

The decision was taken in order to ensure that search and rescue activities and subsequent studies can be carried out quickly, he said at a press conference.

Nearly 70 countries including India has extended a helping hand to Turkey. Rescue and search teams of various countries are helping in finding people among the rubbles. The country was struck by another earthquake of 5.6-magintude in Richter scale yesterday.

(With inputs from IANS)

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