Two massive earthquakes that rattled southern Turkey on February 6 killed at least 40,642 people, the country’s disaster management office announced on Saturday.
The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 quakes impacted Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Hatay, Gaziantep, Malatya, Kilis, Osmaniye, Elazig, and Sanliurfa, as well as 10 other provinces. The terrible earthquakes have touched almost 13 million people.
Numerous nations in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, felt the severe earthquakes that hit Turkey in less than ten hours.
The quakes were followed by approximately 5,700 aftershocks, according to Yunus Sezer, the head of the Disaster and Emergency Management Administration (AFAD).
“Search and rescue operations will be mostly concluded by Sunday evening,” Sezer said.
According to Sezer, 11,488 foreign search and rescue units from 80 nations have arrived in the disaster zone to assist.
He stated that more than 682,000 citizens had received cash assistance in the amount of 10,000 Turkish liras ($531).
Sezer stated that evacuations from the earthquake zone to other provinces were still ongoing: “So far, almost 430,000 people have been evacuated.”
“At the moment, we are sheltering 313,720 victims in public guesthouses, hotels, and other lodging facilities.” “He went on to say.