The death toll from a powerful earthquake in southeastern Turkey near the Syrian border has exceeded 7,800.
The Gurdian:
According to international media, around 8,000 people have died in Syria and Turkey since the first earthquake on Monday morning.
According to figures published by the AFP news agency, 5,894 people have died in Turkey and at least 1,932 in Syria.
There are warnings that the death toll may increase.
Despite the extreme cold, as search efforts continue, even at night, the time to find survivors under the rubble is dwindling.
Teams of experts, trained dogs and various equipment are being sent in to help with the rescue from around the world.
The death toll is expected to rise.
The World Health Organization’s chief emergency officer for Europe, Catherine Smallwood, said the death toll could exceed 20,000.
Thousands of people are still without contact. Many houses, including some apartments, were destroyed.
More than 65 countries have sent their soldiers and rescue workers to Turkey for rescue. Rescue is becoming difficult due to extreme cold.
Authorities have asked people not to return to their homes immediately.
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck near Gaziantep, the southern city of Turkey, at 4:17 a.m. local time on Monday. Dozens of aftershocks followed.
One of them was of magnitude 7.7. So far, 200 aftershocks have been reported.
As the epicenter of the earthquake is close to the border, Syria has also suffered great damage.
In Syria, the government does not have control over all the areas affected by the earthquake.
Some of the earthquake-affected areas in northern Syria are under state control, while others are controlled by Turkey, and some areas are occupied by rebels.
The earthquake has added to the suffering in the civil war-torn region.
This is the second major earthquake Turkey has experienced in the past 25 years.
Earlier in 1999, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake centered near Istanbul killed nearly 18,000 people.
At that time, many houses that were built without meeting the standards were demolished.
Despite the lack of effective emergency rescue mechanisms, many people lost their lives at that time.
After current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party came to power in 2002, the emergency rescue system was improved and more than 3 million homes were reinforced.
This year too, many houses have collapsed due to non-compliance of building standards. Turkey is in an earthquake prone area.
Much of Turkey lies on the Anatolian Plate. An earthquake in 1939 killed more than 30,000 people in Turkey.
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