Death toll from Türkiye quakes tops 42,000

Adana, The Gulf Observer: Turkish disaster management agency revises the number of fatalities to 42,310 people, up from 41,156 a day earlier, following two powerful quakes two weeks ago that affected millions in the country’s 11 provinces.

The death toll from February 6 powerful earthquakes has topped 42,000 a day after another tremor jolted Türkiye’s southern Hatay province.

A total of 7,242 aftershocks have been recorded after the devastating earthquakes that shook the country’s southeast on February 6, the Turkish disaster management agency AFAD.

AFAD said the magnitude 6.4 earthquake took place at around 8.04 pm local time (1704GMT) in Hatay’s Defne district. It was followed by a magnitude 5.8 aftershock three minutes later, with the epicentre in Hatay’s Samandag district.

It said the death toll has climbed to at least 42,310 people dead.

The reported toll in Syria is 5,814, taking the combined death toll in both countries to over 48,000.

Türkiye has mobilised all its resources and means to carry out accommodation and subsistence services for earthquake victims since the deadly Feb. 6 earthquakes hit its southern provinces, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Within one year, the country will revive the quake-hit villages and cities, and a total of 70,000 houses will be built in the villages affected by the Kahramanmaras-centered earthquakes to be handed over to their beneficiaries, Erdogan said at a briefing in the southern Osmaniye province.

Türkiye aims to complete the construction of nearly 200,000 permanent houses and place its citizens in those houses within a year in 11 provinces – Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Sanliurfa, and Elazig – all of which were affected by the magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, he said.