Turkish President: Death toll from Turkey-Syria earthquake rise to 20,000

ANKARA, Feb. 09 (YPA) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Thursday that the death toll as a result of the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria has risen to about 20,000.

Erdogan said in a press statement that “the death toll from the earthquake in Turkey has risen to 16,170, at the present time, while 64,194 have been injured,” with an increase of 3,800 dead and 1,280 wounded during the past 24 hours, as yesterday’s statistic reached 12,391 dead and 62,914 injured.

He confirmed that his country would host those affected by the earthquake in hotels free of charge.

Earlier in the day, the Turkish President affirmed his country’s readiness to compensate those affected by the earthquakes, just as those affected by the Van earthquake were compensated before.

In the context, Fuad Oktay, the Turkish Vice President, announced in a speech he delivered Thursday before the Turkish parliament that the death toll from the earthquake disaster had risen to 16,170 people.

Oktay said that the number of injured people as a result of the disaster rose to 64,194 cases, and indicated that the number of collapsed buildings reached 6,444 buildings.

He revealed that 24,727 members of the search and rescue teams are already continuing their work in the affected areas, indicating that the number of participants in the operations, when adding volunteers, soldiers, security and health personnel, local employees and others, is 113,318.

YPA