A resident stands in front of his destroyed home in Samandag, south of Hatay on February 16, 2023, ten days after a 7.8-magnitude struck the border region of Turkey and Syria. Dozens of arms frantically reach for heaters and blankets handed out by a private donor, illustrating the desperation and rage gripping swathes of Turkey 11 days after its disastrous quake. Many in the Syrian border region town of Samandag listened to their relatives and friends slowly die under the rubble as they waited for rescuers who came too late. (AFP)
ISTANBUL Turkey – The death toll from a catastrophic earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria climbed above 40,000 on Friday, with hopes fading of finding survivors.
Officials and medics said 38,044 people had died in Turkey and 3,688 in Syria from the February 6 tremor, bringing the confirmed total to 41,732.
Turkish rescuers on Thursday pulled a 17-year-old girl and a woman in her 20s from the rubble, nearly 11 full days after the 7.8-magnitude jolt struck.
But Turkey has suspended rescue operations in some regions, and the government in war-torn Syria has done the same in areas under its control.
The Turkish toll makes it the country’s deadliest natural disaster in its post-Ottoman history.