INSTANBUL: As per the latest updates, the death toll in Turkey’s quake increased to over 500, with the toll only expected to rise further. India PM Narendra Modi has extended a helping hand to the quake-hit nation by sending a team of search and rescue teams to expedite the operations. He further announced to provide relief material to Turkey on humanitarian grounds.
As per the last count, at least 284 people have died and more than 2,300 were injured in Turkey, according to the country’s Vice President Fuat Oktay. In Syria, at least 237 people were killed and 639 injured, Syrian state-run news agency reported, citing a health ministry official.
More than 1,000 search and rescue volunteers have been pressed into action, with Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan assuring the people of the necessary aid and speaking to the governors of Adana, Malatya, Gaziantep, Diyarbakır, Hatay, Adıyaman, Osmaniye and Şanlıurfa — the cities where maximum damage has been caused.
Other nations including the United States of America has also announced relief. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan tweeted that the US was “profoundly concerned by today’s destructive earthquake in Turkiye and Syria,” and was “ready to provide any and all needed assistance”.
Following the 1999 earthquake, this is the strongest tremors the nation has felt ever since.