Turkey-Syria Earthquake Death Toll Surpasses 15,000

Ankara: The death toll from Monday’s devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria has surpassed 15,000.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during his visit to the worst-hit region on Wednesday that a total of 8,574 people in the country have died from the massive earthquakes, Xinhua news agency reported.

Earlier, the country’s disaster management agency had said more than 40,000 people have been injured.

In Syria, at least 1,250 were killed and 2,054 injured, said the Syrian Health Ministry. Media reports also cited rescue workers as saying that at least 1,280 were killed and over 2,600 injured in the opposition-held region in Syria.

A 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey’s southern province of Kahramanmaras at 4:17 a.m. local time on Monday, followed by a 6.4 magnitude quake a few minutes later in the country’s southern province of Gaziantep and a 7.6 magnitude earthquake at 1:24 p.m. local time in the Kahramanmaras Province.

Rescuers were racing against time and bitter cold to find survivors in Kahramanmaras, the epicentre of two huge and deadly earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday.

Many countries and global aid agencies are offering rescue teams and relief supplies to the quake-hit regions.