Death toll in Turkey and Syria earthquake crossed 24,000

Ankara/Damascus: Rescue work continues on Saturday for the sixth consecutive day after the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6. The death toll in the earthquake has reached 24 thousand so far. Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said in its latest update that the death toll in the country stood at 20,318, according to a news agency report. At the same time 80,052 people have been injured. The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in Kahramanmaras province, affected more than 13 million people in Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Sanliurfa provinces.

CNN reported that the number of people killed in Syria is 3,513. According to the volunteer organization Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, 2,166 deaths were recorded in rebel-held areas in the country’s northwest. Meanwhile, Syrian state media said 1,347 people were reported killed in government-controlled parts of the war-torn nation. The delivery of urgent supplies to earthquake-hit rebel-held areas in northern and northwestern Syria has been complicated by the long-running civil war between opposition groups and the Syrian government.

Speaking to reporters in the quake-hit Adyaman province on Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, unfortunately a lot of buildings were damaged, a news agency reported. We have not been able to act as quickly as we would have liked. He said that the emergency work was very difficult, as the devastating effect of the earthquake was spread over an area of ​​500 km. He said that cold is becoming another hindrance in the works.

Edergen previously acknowledged that there were shortcomings in the government’s response to the disaster on the first day, but then managed the situation better, but now the country is the world’s largest search and rescue center with more than 141,000 personnel, including foreign emergency teams. Has assembled rescue teams. For those who do not want to live in tents, the President has decided to rebuild the earthquake-hit area within a year and provide one year’s rental assistance to earthquake victims.

Erdogan’s government has faced criticism from earthquake victims that emergency aid was launched too late and that humanitarian aid was not sufficient in the quake-hit region of 10 provinces, which is home to some 13.5 million people. According to AFAD, more than 81,000 people have been evacuated from the quake-hit areas. Relatives and local citizens were in tears of joy after an eight-year-old boy was rescued from the ruins of a building in the province’s Antakya district 108 hours after the quake.

A family of six was pulled from the rubble after 102 hours in the town of Iskenderun. Raziye and Hasi Murat Klink, two neighbors of the family, were rescued after 107 hours. Many countries and global aid agencies have expressed support for both countries, and some of them have sent rescue teams and relief materials to the earthquake-affected areas. A devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey’s southern province of Kahramanmaras at 4.17 a.m. on 6 February, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.4 earthquake in Gaziantep province. The epicenter of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake was 23 km east of Noordagi in Gaziantep with a depth of 24.1 km. At around 1.30 pm, a third earthquake of magnitude 7.5 struck Kahramanmaras.

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