Death toll after earthquake hit Turkey, Syria rise above 33,000
The death toll after a devastating 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria has risen to 33,000 with more than 92,600 others injured amid heightened rescue mission by search teams to locate more bodies in the rubble.
Authorities fear that the death toll could rise even as search teams intensify rescue missions to find more bodies.
With the intensified rescue mission, more survivors continued to be retrieved from the rubble yesterday including a pregnant woman and two children.
A 10-year-old girl was rescued after spending 147 hours trapped under rubble in southern Turkey’s Hatay province.
Another 50-year-old woman survivor was rescued by crews in the town of Iskenderun, in hard-hit Hatay province as she appeared badly injured.
According to the Turkish Emergency Coordination Center SAKOM, the death toll in Turkey has scaled to 29,605 whereas its counterpart Syria, the total number of deaths stands at 3,576.
Conferring to Syrian state media citing the health ministry as of Saturday, in Syrian government-controlled parts, deaths figures stood at 1,408 whereas rebel-held areas headed by the “White Helmets” civil defense group in the northwest reported 2,168 deaths by close of business on Friday.
Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag confirmed that 131 individuals were under investigations for allegedly being irregularly responsible in the construction of buildings that failed to withstand the quakes.
The state-run Anadolu Agency said the list of those under scrutiny include two people arrested in Gaziantep province on suspicion of cutting down columns to make extra room in a building that collapsed.
According to the Turkish justice ministry, three people have so far been arrested, seven others detained as seven others barred from leaving the country including two contractors held responsible for the destruction of buildings in Adiyaman were arrested yesterday at Istanbul Airport while attempting to fly out of the country.
Yavuz Karakus, one of the detained contractors revealed to have built 44 buildings out of which four were demolished during the earthquakes.
