Turkish authorities on Friday raised to more than 18,300 the death toll from the earthquakes registered on Monday in the south of the country, near the border with Syria, a country in which almost 3,300 people have also died, according to the latest balance sheets.
The Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), under the Turkish Interior Ministry, has detailed that so far 18,323 people have been confirmed dead, before adding that the number of injured now stands at 74,242, as reported by the Turkish state news agency Anatolia.
During the early hours of the morning, emergency services have continued to rescue people from under the rubble nearly 100 hours after the earthquakes, an increasingly complicated task since the standard time a human being can go without food or water intake in disasters such as this is 72 hours.
While the work of the emergency services continues, the Turkish authorities have promised to take action against negligence in housing construction, as poor construction is suspected to have played a role in the high number of deaths.
Meanwhile, the earthquakes have left nearly 3,292 people dead and 5,200 injured in Syria, of which 1,262 dead and 2,285 injured have been recorded in the areas of Syria controlled by government forces, according to data from the Ministry of Health, which has not updated the death toll for days.
To the Syrian government figures must be added more than 2,030 dead and 2,950 wounded in rebel-held areas in the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo (northwest), the Syrian Civil Defense, known as ‘white helmets’, has said through its Twitter account, which continues with search and rescue operations on the fifth day after the earthquakes.
Faced with this situation, the United Nations has already sent a first convoy of humanitarian aid to Syria through the Bab al Hawa border crossing in the northwest of the country. This included up to six trucks with relief supplies and sheds, although Guterres has stressed that «more aid is on the way».
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
