Turkey-Syria Earthquake: Death toll exceeds 40,000

ANKARA-(MaraviPost)-The death toll from two major earthquakes that struck southeastern Turkey on February 6 has risen to 40,642, the country’s disaster agency said.

Search and rescue efforts will be largely completed as of Sunday evening, Xinhua news agency quoted Yunus Sezer, head of the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), as saying.

The emergency work was concentrated in southern Hatay province, which was hit hardest in last week’s quakes, he said, adding that the disaster agency had nearly 13,000 personnel working in the area.

A total of 430,000 people were evacuated from the earthquake area, Sezer said.

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Turkey’s southern province of Kahramanmaras at 4:17 a.m. local time (0117 GMT), 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 (1024 GMT) in the Kahramanmaras Province

Lloyd M’bwana

I’m a Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resource (LUANAR)’s Environmental Science graduate (Malawi) and UK’s ICM Journalism and Media studies scholar. Also University of Malawi (UNIMA) Library Science Scholar. I have been The Malawi Country Manager and duty editor for the Maravi Post since 2019. My duty editor’s job is to ensure that the news is covered properly, that it is delivered on time, and that it is created to the standards set out in the editorial guidelines of the Maravi Post.