The death toll from the earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey has risen to more than 25,000 5 days after a devastating quake hit the likes of which the region has not seen in two decades, Turkey’s health minister said. announced that the death toll from the disaster had risen to 20,665, while the number of injured was 80,52, and 20,000 injured had been taken out of the region to continue treatment by air, land and sea ambulances.
In Syria, the earthquake has killed more than 3,700 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless and food insecure in harsh winter conditions.
The earthquake now ranks as the seventh deadliest natural disaster of this century, surpassing the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan and approaching the total death toll of the 2003 earthquake in Iran that killed 31,000 people.
The death toll from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake and strong aftershocks in both countries exceeded the death toll recorded during a similar earthquake that struck northwestern Turkey in 1999, which killed more than 17,000 people.
About 24.4 million people have been affected in Syria and Turkey in an area stretching 450 kilometers from Adana in the west to Diyarbakir in the east, according to Turkish and United Nations officials.
The survivors are in dire need of food, water and heating.
