TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The death toll from the Turkey and Syria earthquakes exceeded 12,000 after the Turkish and Syrian authorities updated the victim data for the 7.8 magnitude earthquake.
According to a Reuters report on Thursday, February 9 2023, early morning, of that number, around 2,992 people were in Syria, while nearly 9,100 were in Turkey.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself revealed that the number of victims who died in his country so far is 9,057 people.
Meanwhile, the Syrian civil defense authorities said most of the victims in their country were in northwestern Syria. Syria is reportedly experiencing a scarcity of body bags and uncoordinated disaster relief efforts.
"The difference between Turkey and Syria is that in Turkey there are coordinated search and rescue efforts, whereas in Syria that is not the case," said Salah Aboulegasem, an aid worker at Islamic Relief in the Turkish city of Gaziantep.
To Sky News, Aboulegasem admitted that he got the information from his colleagues who are currently active in search and rescue in Syria.
A shallow earthquake with a depth of 7 kilometers and an epicenter in Pazarck District, Kahramanmara Province, occurred on Monday (6/2) early morning.
In Turkey, the earthquake rattled the other provinces of Hatay, Adyaman, Gaziantep, Anlurfa, Diyarbakr, Adana, Malatya, Osmaniye and Kilis.
According to the Hurriyet daily report, the worst affected area was Hatay, where nearly 2,000 people died from the quake.
Meanwhile, in Adana, the earthquake not only brought down many buildings in Cukurova District, but also likely created damage to a number of dams in the province.
Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Vahit Kirisci stated that Turkey has completed investigations of more than 90 dams out of a total of 110 dams.
Turkey is also exerting all its power to search for and save victims, in addition to restoring the bad conditions caused by the earthquake, one of which is deploying military personnel.
"Air force planes are continuing to evacuate those injured in this earthquake and take them to hospitals in Ankara," the country's defense ministry said.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu stated that Turkey had set a Level 4 disaster status which allowed this country to ask for international assistance. Turkey is located in one of the world's highly active earthquake zones. In 1999, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake rocked Dezce.
REUTERS | SKY NEWS | TEMPO.CO
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