HATAY: The death toll from Monday’s devastating earthquakes in southern Turkey rose to 5,894, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said today.
Speaking at a news conference, Oktay put the number of injured from the massive quakes centred in Kahramanmaras province at 34,810.
“The loss of every citizen deeply saddens us,” Anadolu Agency reported Oktay as saying to reporters, adding that authorities are continuing their rescue efforts to find more survivors.
As many as 5,775 buildings collapsed, he said. More than 8,000 people have been rescued from the rubble of the buildings.
Early Monday morning, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Kahramanmaras, followed by a 7.6-magnitude quake about nine hours later, which rocked the region, affecting several other provinces including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Sanliurfa.
The quakes also devastated neighbouring Syria.
According to German news agency dpa, 2,270 people have been killed, according to the Health Ministry and the rescue organisation White Helmets, which are counting the tolls in government-controlled and opposition-controlled areas respectively.