Nearly 60,000 killed in 2023 Turkey, Syria quake: new toll

This aerial photograph taken on Jan. 18, 2024 in Kahramanmaras, shows damaged buildings and the rebuilding process after the February 2023 earthquake. The disaster killed more than 50,000 people in all, becoming Turkey’s deadliest in many centuries. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed the toll’s scale on negligent contractors, accusing them of cutting corners by using cheap concrete and violating basic building standards. (Photo by YASIN AKGUL / AFP)

Agence France-Presse

Last year’s massive earthquake in southeastern Turkey killed 53,537 people in the country, the interior minister said Friday, bringing the overall death toll to nearly 60,000.

The government in neighboring Syria has said 1,414 people died in areas under its control in the predawn disaster on Feb. 6, 2023.

Turkish-backed officials in northern Syria have put the toll in rebel-held regions at 4,537.

The combined official death toll of 59,488 people makes last year’s quake the deadliest since 67,000 people died in Peru in 1970.

Turkey’s previous official toll, released in the first weeks after the quake, put the number of deaths at 50,783 people.

Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya released the updated figures on the eve of the anniversary of the disaster, which affected 11 provinces across Turkey’s southeast.

Yerlikaya said the quake affected 14 million people in Turkey.

Around 38,901 buildings were destroyed by the first 7.8-magnitude tremor and initial aftershocks, which included one with a 7.5-magnitude later that day.

Turkey has set up 215,224 metal containers to house 691,000 survivors who have lost their homes and been unable to find new accommodations on their own, Yerlikaya said.

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