The death toll from the massive earthquake in Turkey has risen to 3,419 dead and 20,534 injured, according to the Turkish Emergency and Disaster Management Agency (AFAD).
Turkish Minister of Infrastructure and Urban Development Murad Çorum said that 13.5 million Turkish citizens were directly affected by the earthquake in the ten states that hit it.
The Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies indicated that 5,775 buildings collapsed and 11,302 buildings collapsed, which has yet to be confirmed.
For his part, Turkish Vice President Fuad Aktay said that more than 8,000 people have been pulled out of the rubble so far. Highlighting the arrival of 3294 search and rescue personnel from other countries, and in total more than 70 countries offered to contribute to the search and rescue efforts.
Since early Tuesday morning, earthquakes of various degrees have been recorded in several regions of Turkey, the latest of which was a 5.4 magnitude aftershock 43 km from the city of Malatya.
Meanwhile, the Turkish Navy’s TGG Iskenderun arrived in Hatay Province (South) to transport earthquake victims to Mersin Province.
The ship moored in the port of Iskenderun at dawn on Tuesday, and the wounded were taken to it by ambulances. The wounded will be transferred to the state of Mersin (south) for treatment.
Search teams managed to save 6 people, including a child, from the rubble of buildings that collapsed as a result of an earthquake in the states of Hatay, Diyarbakir and Kahramanmaras in southern Turkey.
In the city of Iskenderun, Hatay state, search engines managed to extract 4 people from under the rubble of a 5-storey building, including a 10-year-old child.
In Diyarbakir, brigades rescued a 30-year-old wounded man 27 hours after he was buried under rubble.
In Kahramanmaras, search parties rescued 24-year-old Ramisa Yalchinkaya from the rubble of a 7-storey residential building 27 hours after the earthquake.
And at dawn yesterday, on Monday, in the province of Kahramanmaras in Turkey, an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck, destroying a number of cities and leaving thousands of dead and wounded.
The earthquake also reached the cities of northern Syria and Iraq, the earthquake was felt by the residents of the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
The strongest tremors of the earthquake were in the cities of northern Syria, hundreds of people were killed, thousands were injured and thousands of buildings were destroyed.
As a result, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared seven days of national mourning in the country. According to government decree, the flags will be flown at half mast until Sunday evening, February 12th.
Source: RT+agencies