Death Toll in Turkey exceeds 40,000

The country’s disaster agency reported that 40,642 people have already died as a result of the two powerful earthquakes that rocked southeastern Turkey on February 6. According to Yunus Sezer, chairman of the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), search and rescue operations will be substantially finished by Sunday evening. According to him, the majority of the emergency work was done in the southern Hatay province, which was severely damaged by the earthquakes last week. He also noted that the disaster agency has nearly 13,000 workers in the region.

According to Sezer, 430,000 people in all were evacuated from the epicentre of the earthquake. At 4:17 a.m. local time (0117 GMT), an earthquake of magnitude 7.7 struck Turkey’s southern province of Kahramanmaras. A few minutes later, an earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck the country’s southern province of Gaziantep. Finally, an earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck the same province at 1:24 p.m. local time (1024 GMT).