Turkey, Syria earthquake death toll near 5,000

The death toll in Turkey after a massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake rose to 3,381, the country’s relief agency AFAD said in an AFP report.

The new count brings the confirmed death toll in Turkey and neighboring Syria to 4,890, after the strongest quake to hit the region in nearly a century.

Dozens of nations pledged aid after the 7.8-magnitude quake, which hit as people were still sleeping and amid freezing weather that has hampered emergency efforts.

Multi-storey apartment buildings full of residents were among the 5,606 structures reduced to rubble in Turkey, while Syria announced dozens of collapses, as well as damage to archaeological sites in Aleppo.

“That was the first time we have ever experienced anything like that,” said Melisa Salman, a 23-year-old reporter in the southeastern Turkish city of Kahramanmaras.
“We thought it was the apocalypse.”

The head of Syria’s National Earthquake Centre, Raed Ahmed, called it “the biggest earthquake recorded in the history of the centrt.”