6,000 people Confirm Dead So Far in Syria & Turkey 7.8 Earthquake

 

A 7.8 magnitude earthquake stroke in Syria and Turkey leaving at least 6,000 people confirm Dead.

Emergency teams worked in freezing conditions to rescue thousands of survivors as night began to fall again. Turkey’s president declared a three month state of emergency in the 10 hardest hit provinces.

Thousands of rescue workers were digging through in an increasingly desperate search for survivors, a day after an earthquake left at least 6,000 people dead in Turkey and Syria.

The agency warned that the death toll from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake on Monday, in a region already burdened by a war and refugee crisis, could increase by the thousands.

In Syria, where more than a decade of civil war had already created a humanitarian crisis, at least 1,731 people are dead, according to the state Health Ministry and the White Helmets relief group. Thousands more were injured across the country. Many Syrian war refugees are also in the quake-stricken area of Turkey.

Rescue efforts in Syria are complicated by the location of the quake zone, which includes government- and opposition-controlled lands. The only crossing between Syria and Turkey that is approved by the United Nations for transporting international aid into Syria is closed because of earthquake damage to surrounding roads, according to U.N. officials. Syria cannot receive direct aid from many countries because of sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

The death toll in Turkey has risen to 4,544, Mr. Erdogan said. Vice President Fuat Oktay said that more than 8,000 people had been rescued from underneath the wreckage.

The earthquake is already one of the deadliest natural disasters this century.

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