Earthquake death toll tops 33,000 in Turkey, Syria
Turkey (Reuters) – Rescuers pulled more survivors from the rubble on Sunday, nearly a week after one of the worst earthquakes to hit Turkey and Syria, as Turkish authorities sought to maintain order across the disaster zone and began legal action over building collapses.
With chances of finding more survivors growing more remote, the toll in both countries from Monday’s ( February 6 ) 7.8 magnitude earthquake and major aftershocks rose above 33,000 and looked set to keep growing. It was the deadliest quake in Turkey since 1939.
In Syria, the disaster hit hardest in the rebel-held northwest, leaving homeless yet again many people who had already been displaced several times by a decade-old civil war. The region has received little aid compared to government-held areas.
More than six days after the first quake struck, emergency workers still found a handful of people clinging to life in the wreckage of homes that had become tombs for many thousands.
In Syria, the hostilities that have fractured the country during 12 years of civil war are now hindering relief work.
The quake ranks as the world’s sixth deadliest natural disaster this century, its death toll exceeding the 31,000 from a quake in neighbouring Iran in 2003.
It has killed 29,605 people in Turkey and more than 3,500 in Syria, where tolls have not been updated for two days.
Turkey said about 80,000 people were in hospital, and more than 1 million in temporary shelters.
12 February , 2023
Photo : People sit and stand near a collapsed building, in the aftermath of the deadly earthquake, in Adiyaman, Turkey.- Reuters /Sertac Kayar
