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Turkey-Syria Earthquake: Death Toll Rises To Over 11,200 In Thousands Of Collapsed Buildings

Earthquake
February 8, 2023

The aftershocks, including a magnitude 5.7 temblor that hit Tuesday, made the searching itself dangerous.

The death toll from catastrophic earthquakes in Turkey and Syria surpassed 11,200 on Wednesday morning, authorities said.

This is coming as crews raced to try to find survivors in the rubble of thousands of collapsed buildings.

The aftershocks, including a magnitude 5.7 temblor that hit Tuesday, made the searching itself dangerous.

AFP reports that anger builds at Turkey's quake response, quoting one saying "I have no more tears left to cry."

According to the report, in some areas no rescue teams arrived in the critical first 12 hours after the disaster, forcing relatives to clear the ruins by hand, witnesses say.

SaharaReporters had reported that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had called for help, had on Tuesday that he was declaring a state of emergency for three months across 10 provinces in the earthquake zone, Turkish media reported.

The country's vice president, Fuat Oktay, told reporters 8,000 people had been pulled from under rubble. He said there were 20,000 people taking part in the rescue efforts.

Tens of thousands of people were injured in the two nations and an untold number left homeless in harsh winter conditions.

Meanwhile nearly 6,000 buildings were destroyed in the disaster the country’s disaster management officials have announced.

A 7.7 magnitude quake struck Kahramanmaras Province shortly after 4am local time on Monday, with the epicenter in the Pazarcik district.

It was then followed by two earthquakes in Gaziantep Province, recorded at 6.4 and 6.5 magnitude, respectively.