Turkey and Syria: at least 3,000 people confirmed dead after major earthquakes with number set to rise
The combined death toll rose to more than 3,000 for Turkey and Syria on Monday after the region’s strongest earthquake in nearly a century.
In Turkey, the death toll stood at 1,762, Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said, and 12,068 people were recorded as injured, Reuters reported.
At least 1,293 people were killed in Syria, according to figures from the Damascus government and rescue workers in the north-western region controlled by insurgents.
The United States has deployed a team of disaster response specialists after an earthquake killed more than 2,700 people in Turkey and north-west Syria, USAid administrator Samantha Power said.
The Disaster Assistance Response Team “will work in close coordination with Turkish authorities on the frontlines, as well as with our partners on the ground and agencies across the US government,” Power said in a statement.
USAid is also in the process of deploying two urban search and rescue teams from Virginia and California, the statement said.
The US president, Joe Biden, and Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, are expected to speak soon following the earthquake, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said.
The call will come as top US leaders have pledged to provide Turkey with aid.
The Swedish presidency of the European Union has activated the integrated political crisis response (IPCR) to coordinate EU support measures in response to the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, the EU Council said in a statement on Monday.
The IPCR arrangements strengthen the EU’s ability to take rapid decisions when facing major cross-sectoral crises requiring a response at the EU level.
Through this mechanism, the presidency of the council coordinates the political response to the crisis by bringing together EU institutions, member states and other key actors.
International rescue missions were rushing to Turkey and Syria on Monday after one of the most powerful earthquakes to hit the region in at least a century left more than 2,600 people dead, thousands injured and an unknown number trapped in the rubble.
