Turkey-Syria earthquake death toll surpasses 21,000

The rescue of several survivors from the rubble in Turkey lifted the spirits of weary search crews on Friday, four days after a major earthquake struck the country and neighbouring Syria, killing more than 21,000 people.

At least 18,342 people have been killed and more than 74,242 injured in Turkey according to the country’s officials — surpassing the toll from the devastating 1999 earthquake in Turkey. At least 3,377 people are known to have died and 2,295 injured in Syria with a total death toll of 21,719 from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake and several powerful aftershocks across both countries.

The earthquake now ranks as seventh most deadly natural disaster this century, ahead of Japan’s 2011 tremor and tsunami and approaching the 31,000 killed by a quake in neighbouring Iran in 2003.

Search and rescue crews have pulled several people from the rubble of collapsed buildings four days after the deadly quakes that hit southern Türkiye.

Hopes of finding many more survivors continue, amid freezing-cold weather four days after the disaster.

Several people were pulled from the rubble of buildings during the night, including a 10-year-old boy saved with his mother after 90 hours in the Samandag district of Hatay province in Turkey’s south.

Also in Hatay, a seven-year-old girl named Asya Donmez was rescued after 95 hours and taken to hospital, the state-owned Anadolu news agency reported. In Diyarbakir to the east, Sebahat Varli, 32, and her son Serhat were rescued and taken to hospital on Friday morning, 100 hours after the first quake.

But hopes were fading that many more would be found alive in the ruins of thousands of collapsed buildings in towns and cities across the region.

Nearly 104 hours after the first earthquake, 60-year-old Eyüp Ak was pulled out from under the rubble of his collapsed house in Adıyaman.

At the same time, another citizen was rescued from the debris in Kahramanmaraş.

In the Antakya district of Hatay, 32-year-old Naim Bayaslı was rescued from the rubble of a 4-story building by a Uzbek rescue team after 102 hours.

The teams working in the wreckage of a 5-story Arzu Apartment in the Iskenderun district of Hatay detected sound under the wreckage.

Determining that nine members of two families residing on the first floor of the building were under the rubble, the teams carried out the rescue efforts with the help of heavy construction equipment.

As a result of the intensive work of the teams, six earthquake victims were rescued 102 hours after the first major earthquake.

Efforts are underway to rescue other family members.