At least 40,689 dead from powerful twin earthquakes in southern Türkiye

By Faruk Zorlu

ANKARA (AA) - At least 40,689 people were killed by two strong earthquakes that jolted southern Türkiye on Feb. 6, the country’s disaster management agency said on Sunday.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 quakes were centered in Kahramanmaras and struck 10 other provinces – Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Hatay, Gaziantep, Malatya, Kilis, Osmaniye, Elazig, and Sanliurfa. More than 13 million people have been affected by the devastating quakes.

Several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, also felt the strong tremors that struck Türkiye in the space of less than 10 hours.

The search and rescue efforts have been completed in the earthquake zone, except in the southern Kahramanmaras and Hatay provinces, Yunus Sezer, head of the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD), told reporters.

Sezer said more than 20,000 personnel continue to work on the ground, adding that search and rescue efforts continued in nearly 40 buildings.

Nearly 250,000 tents and over 6,000 containers were set up in the earthquake zone.

Noting that evacuations from the earthquake zone to other provinces continued, Sezer said: "Over 460,900 people have so far been evacuated."

"We are currently hosting 318,970 victims who were evacuated from the quakes-hit region, in public guesthouses, hotels, and other accommodation facilities," he added.

Also, in the region, "we are continuing to host over 1 million disaster victims in public guesthouses, hotels, and other accommodation facilities," he said.

He said that the cash aid of 10,000 Turkish liras ($531) has been given to nearly 800,000 citizens.