Summary of news
- Death toll in Turkey and Syria surpasses 46,000.
- Search efforts were scaled back after nearly two weeks of the quake.
- Syria is struggling to extract bodies from rebelheld areas of the country.
- At least 1 million people were left homeless by the earthquake.
More than 46,000 people died after the earthquake in Turkey and Syria Sameer AlDoumy / AFP 02/19/20223
The death toll after the powerful earthquake that hit southern Turkey and northern Syria has surpassed 46,000.
According to the Turkish government, 40,642 people died in the country. In neighboring Syria, 5,814 people have died since February 6.
The Syrian government is still struggling to remove the bodies of people living in rebelheld areas; The country has been in a civil war for more than a decade.
A convoy of 14 trucks belonging to the humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) managed to enter northwest Syria this Sunday (19) to help with rescue operations.
Efforts to locate victims in Turkey were halted on Sunday. The head of Turkey’s Emergency and Disaster Management Agency (AFAD), Yunus Sezer, said search and rescue operations were expected to be largely completed tonight.
On Saturday (18), 296 hours after the earthquake, a couple was rescued in Antakya, capital of Hatay province.
In the past three days, seven people have been pulled alive from the rubble, all in Antakya, including the couple’s son, who died shortly after being rescued.
At least 1 million people were left homeless by the earthquake, with the economic cost of the disaster estimated at billions of dollars.
The death toll is expected to rise as around 345,000 homes were destroyed in Turkey and many people are still missing. Neither Turkey nor Syria have said how many people might still be under the rubble.
The World Health Organization estimates that around 26 million people in Turkey and Syria are in need of humanitarian assistance.