Quake death toll in Turkey over 40,000; search & rescue efforts to end soon

The death toll from two major earthquakes that struck southeastern Turkey on February 6 has risen to 40,642, the country's disaster agency said.

Search and rescue efforts will be largely completed as of Sunday evening, Xinhua news agency quoted Yunus Sezer, head of the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), as saying.

The emergency work was concentrated in southern Hatay province, which was hit hardest in last week's quakes, he said, adding that the disaster agency had nearly 13,000 personnel working in the area.

A total of 430,000 people were evacuated from the earthquake area, Sezer said.

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Turkey's southern province of Kahramanmaras at 4:17 a.m. local time (0117 GMT), followed by a magnitude 6.4 quake a few minutes later in the country's southern province of Gaziantep and a magnitude 7.6 earthquake at 1:24 p.m. local time (1024 GMT) in the Kahramanmaras Province.

--IANS

int/sha