The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, declared a seven-day national mourning in Turkey on Monday, after the earthquakes that at this point left a provisional balance of 1,762 dead.
According to this decree published by the government, the flags will fly at half mast until sunset on Sunday, February 12.
At least 2,700 people died this Monday in the southeast of Turkey and neighboring Syria by a powerful earthquake of 7.8 degrees of magnitude, followed a few hours later by a very strong aftershock, and international aid was mobilized after these tremors so that operations rescue were hampered by cold and cold. the night.
A balance that grows hour after hour
This death toll continues to grow, with large numbers of people trapped under collapsed buildings numbering in the thousands. The rain and snow, which fell abundantly in some places, and the expected drop in temperatures with the fall of night made the work of the lifeguards even more difficult on Monday afternoon, and the situation of the inhabitants on the street.
Under these conditions, the World Health Organization said it expected a much higher final figure. “We often see numbers eight times higher than the initial numbers,” said an emergency manager at the WHO’s European office, Catherine Smallwood.
The first tremor occurred at 04:17 local time, in the district of Pazarcik, in the province of Kahramanmaras (southeast), about 60 km in a straight line from the border with Syria.
Dozens of aftershocks followed, before a new earthquake of magnitude 7.5 still in southeastern Turkey, 4 km southeast of the town of Ekinozu.
Source: BFM TV
