Turkey earthquake death toll tops 40,500

The death toll from the earthquake in Turkey exceeded 40.5 thousand people, said on February 18 the head of the country’s disaster management department (AFAD), Yunus Sezer.

“The death toll is rising, at the moment it is 40,642 people,” – Sezer said.

108,068 people were affected by the devastating tremors. More than 430 thousand people were taken from dangerous regions to other areas.

The Turkish authorities plan to complete search and rescue operations in most of the affected regions by the evening of February 19.

Catastrophic earthquakes of magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 occurred in southeastern Turkey on February 6. The tremors were so powerful that hundreds of aftershocks spread to ten provinces and even several neighboring countries, including Syria.

Earlier, Western media published calculations according to which the country’s economy lost $84 billion due to the cataclysm.