Update:
The death toll has risen to 284 from an earthquake which shook Turkey’s south early on Monday, with 2,323 people injured, vice president Fuat Oktay told a news conference.
Reuters report he said 70 people were killed in the province of Kahramanmaraş, where the quake epicentre was located, along with 20 people in Osmaniye, 18 in Şanlıurfa, 14 in Diyarbakir and 13 in Adiyaman.
With over 230 killed in Syria, the death toll from the earthquake has now risen above 500.
It’s just past 8am in Gaziantep, Turkey, as we receive more information on the total number of deaths cause by a powerful earthquake this morning.
Turkey’s disaster management agency AFAD said on Monday that 76 people had been killed and 440 injured in the massive earthquake that reverberated through several provinces in the south of the country.
“76 of our citizens lost their lives in Adana, Adiyaman, Malatya, Kahramanmaras, Gaziantep, and 440 citizens were injured in Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Adana, Adiyaman, Malatya, Osmaniye, Hatay and Kilis,” AFAD said.
At least 50 people have died in neighbouring Syria.
Forty-two people were killed in government-controlled parts of the country, state media said, while a local hospital told AFP that eight others were killed in northern areas controlled by pro-Turkish factions.
“Forty-two deaths and 200 injuries have been reported in Aleppo, Hama and Latakia as a result of the earthquake in a preliminary toll,” state news agency Sana said quoting a health ministry official.
Rescuers are continuing the search the rubble of collapsed buildings as the death toll is expected to rise.
A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southeast Turkey and Syria early Monday, toppling buildings and sending panicked residents pouring outside in a cold winter night. At least 31 were killed, and the toll was expected to rise.
Rescue workers and residents using flashlights were searching through piles of tangled metal and concrete rubble in one of the stricken cities. People on the street shouted up to others inside a partially toppled apartment building, leaning dangerously.
The quake, felt as far away as Cairo, was centered north of the city of Gaziantep in an about 90 kilometers (60 miles) from the Syrian border. Along with several cities, the area is home to home to millions of Syrian refugees who fled their country’s long-running civil war. Turkey, which borders Syria to the north, hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees in the world.
