Nearly 60,000 killed in 2023 Turkiye, Syria quake: new toll

ANKARA (AFP): Last year’s massive earthquake in southeastern Turkiye killed 53,537 people in the country, the interior minister said Friday, bringing the overall death toll to nearly 60,000.

The government in neighboring Syria has said 1,414 people died in areas under its control in the predawn disaster on February 6, 2023.

Turkish-backed officials in northern Syria have put the toll in rebel-held regions at 4,537.

The combined official death toll of 59,488 people makes last year’s quake the deadliest since 67,000 people died in Peru in 1970.

Turkiye’s previous official toll, released in the first weeks after the quake, put the number of deaths at 50,783 people.

Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya released the updated figures on the eve of the anniversary of the disaster, which affected 11 provinces across Turkiye’s southeast.

Yerlikaya said the quake affected 14 million people in Turkiye.

Around 38,901 buildings were destroyed by the first 7.8-magnitude tremor and initial aftershocks, which included one with a 7.5-magnitude later that day.

Turkiye has set up 215,224 metal containers to house 691,000 survivors who have lost their homes and been unable to find new accommodations on their own, Yerlikaya said.