Ankara, Mar 5 (EFE) Uncertainty about the actual number of victims continues.
“Whatever figure we have we will share with our nation,” said Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, updating last night the number of victims in Hatay province, one of the most affected.
The minister denied that the real death toll is higher than the official one.
The Turkish College of Physicians said three weeks ago, when the official death count was still 41,000, that some 60,000 people had died in the quakes, but said it would submit a comprehensive report.
That report, published yesterday, did not specify a total figure but asked the authorities to be transparent and clarify the data on identified and unidentified corpses.
“Uncertainty continues about the number of deaths related to earthquakes,” said the report, which gives as an example that the official number of deaths in Kahramanmaras is around 6,000, while 11,000 burials have been recorded in that municipality. .
However, this discrepancy may be due to the fact that all the figures have not yet been reported or that there are deceased who have been buried in regions other than where they died.
Soylu said the dead included 4,235 Syrians who were living as refugees in Turkey fleeing the civil war in their country.
He also assured that the Government is fighting against disinformation and that the computer crime authorities and the Prosecutor’s Office have acted against the administrators of 613 accounts on social networks, that 151 people have been arrested and 26 sent to prison.
Debris removal work continues and 332 tent settlements have been created housing 1.5 million earthquake victims.
In addition, the minister pointed out that more than two million people have left the affected areas in which they lived. EFE
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