The death toll from Monday’s major earthquakes has surpassed 21,000, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Saturday.
Erdoğan said that 21,043 people are confirmed to have lost their lives in the recent disasters, while 80,097 others were injured.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca had announced late Friday that the death toll had surpassed 20,000. In a later news conference, Vice President Fuat Oktay said 67 people were rescued from the rubble in the past 24 hours.
Oktay added more than 1 million citizens have been hosted in temporary accommodation centers.
The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaraş province, affected more than 13 million people across 10 provinces, also including Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Şanlıurfa.
Several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, also felt the strong tremors that struck Türkiye in the span of nine hours, with Syria’s death toll nearing 3,400.
Source : Daily Sabah
