Death toll in Turkish-Syrian earthquake rises above 16,000

Four days into the earthquake in the Turkish-Syrian border region, the reported death toll has risen to more than 16,000 people, according to Turkey news agency ANADOLU.

The agency, which quoted the country’s disaster management agency, AFAD, announced that in Turkey, there were now 12,873 confirmed fatalities while 62,937 were injured.

According to the Syrian state agency, SANA, and the rescue organization, White Helmets, 3,162 people have died in the quake in Syria.

The report, which was obtained in different parts of the quake zone, said the affected areas were initially difficult to access, and the number of victims was rising as the recovery work progressed.

The region was hit first by a quake of magnitude 7.7 early on Monday morning, according to measurements by the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ).

The second quake of magnitude 7.6 occurred about noon. The reports said there had been hundreds of aftershocks since then.