UPDATE- Turkey: Death toll from Izmir quake rises to 115

CHANGES HEADLINE, SPOT, LEDE, BYLINE; UPDATED WITH RECENT NUMBERS

By Halil Sahin, Ali Korkmaz and Hamdi Celikbas

IZMIR / ANKARA, Turkey (AA) - As many as 23 patients injured in last week’s earthquake in Turkey's Aegean region are still receiving treatment, authorities said late Sunday.

"Twenty-four of the victims are being treated in hospitals, while all others have been discharged," Environment and Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum told a news conference early Sunday in quake-hit Izmir, Turkey's third-largest city.

Later, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said the death toll from the Oct. 30 quake had risen to 115.

Some 1,011 people who suffered injuries have also been discharged from hospitals, according to AFAD.

A total of 2,846 aftershocks – 46 of them with a magnitude higher than 4 – have been recorded since the magnitude 6.6 quake rattled Izmir, which is home to more than 4.3 million people, the agency said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking in the northwestern Kocaeli province, also gave an update, saying that among those receiving treatment, three are in critical condition.

Kurum said 342 buildings in the city have been destroyed or heavily damaged, 3,660 are slightly damaged, and 383 are moderately damaged.

Nearly 14 million Turkish liras ($1.6 million) in financial aid has been provided so far, he added.

Erdogan has pledged to rebuild the damaged structures as soon as possible.

As a temporary solution, thousands of tents have been set up, and a "container city" of temporary housing units is also being built.

Turkey is among the world's most seismically active zones, and has suffered devastating earthquakes in the past, including the magnitude 7.6 Marmara quake in 1999.

*Writing by Burak Bir and Merve Aydogan in Ankara.