Mourning without end: More than 17,500 dead from the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria

Mourning without end in Turkey and Syria, with Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Fuat Oktay announcing 14,351 dead from the deadly earthquakes in the neighbor. Together with the 3,162 victims in Syria, the dead in both countries now exceed on 17,513.

“Our number of wounded is 63,794. The number of damaged buildings is set at 6,444,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier.

Rescue efforts are continuing in the southern regions hit by the earthquake, the Turkish president said from Gaziantep, adding: “We are in the field with all our institutions,” Anatoli news agency reported.

The goal is full recovery, the reconstruction of the 10 provinces that were affected by the earthquake within a year, Erdogan reiterated. A state of emergency has been declared in the 10 provinces affected by the earthquake to deal with moneylenders and riots, he noted.

“Once again, I would like to express my best wishes to our citizens in all our cities affected by the earthquake,” the Turkish president said.

WHO: “The dead will increase greatly”

The “window” to save the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria is “running out fast”, said the regional director of the World Health Organization for Europe, Hans Kluge.

The WHO official told the BBC that only 22% of people trapped in rubble survive for 72 hours after an earthquake and since then the rate has been declining rapidly.

“Every minute counts now because the window to save lives is running out fast,” Kluge said. “Everyone is working non-stop to find and rescue any survivors.” The death toll is likely to “increase significantly,” he said.

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