Image of a child pinned to a tree next to rubble from the aftermath of the Turkey earthquake – Reuters
Turkey earthquake
The death toll from the earthquake in Turkey rose to 40,689
Today, Sunday, the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority announced the end of search and rescue operations in most of the areas affected by the devastating earthquake that struck the country on the sixth of this month. Turkey is currently witnessing operations to verify the unknown bodies through DNA testing.
The head of the administration, Younes Cesar, said, during a briefing to the media, that the number of earthquake victims rose to 40,689.
For his part, Turkish Interior Minister Suleiman Soylu called on citizens to go to designated centers in each state to obtain a blood sample to conduct the examination and facilitate the identification of the owners of the unidentified bodies.
On Sunday, the Turkish Minister of Interior said that there are about 82,000 buildings that either completely collapsed or were severely damaged as a result of the two successive earthquakes in the ten states, indicating that the process of listing the damaged buildings will be completed on Monday.
A young girl who survived an earthquake
Limitation of damages
The Turkish authorities also began counting the earthquake’s damage after the rescue operations slowed down. The stricken cities of Turkey have come to life, and cleaning and sterilization work has already begun in the streets surrounding the damaged areas and buildings.
Meanwhile, those affected by the earthquake continue to flee from the affected states in Turkey to other regions in search of shelter and a safer place.
Citizens complained about exploitation by companies to transport what remained of their belongings, as some companies taking advantage of the disaster found an opportunity to raise the transportation tariff. International relief agencies are stepping up their efforts in what was considered one of the worst disasters in the region.
An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale struck Turkey on Saturday evening, according to the European Seismological Center.
According to monitoring, the epicenter of the earthquake is located 54 km northwest of the city of Kahramanmaraş, which is inhabited by about 376,000 people, and at a depth of 10 km.
According to the Turkish Emergency Situations Authority, the earthquake lasted about 10 seconds. Earthquakes were felt in neighboring Kahramanmaras, Adiyaman and Gaziantep.
On the other hand, the authorities asked the residents to stay away from the damaged buildings for fear that they might collapse at any moment.
As for Syria, the number of victims has so far reached approximately 6,396 since the disaster occurred, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Thus, the latest death toll in both countries rose to nearly 47,000 victims, while neither Turkey nor Syria mentioned the number of those still missing.
