Final death toll from Turkey-Syria quake will top 55,000, UN relief chief predicts

Visiting devastated city of Kahramanmaras, Martin Griffiths estimates that current toll of some 28,000 will ‘double or more’

By AFP 12 February 2023, 5:45 am

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Municipal grave diggers bury the bodies of four people, three of the them not claimed by relatives, in a makeshift cemetery on the outskirts of Elbistan, Turkey, February 11, 2023, following an earthquake that devastated the area. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

KAHRAMANMARAS, Turkey — The death toll from a massive earthquake in Turkey and Syria will “double or more” from its current level of around 28,000, UN relief chief Martin Griffiths has said.

Griffiths arrived on Saturday in Turkey’s southern city of Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of the first 7.8-magnitude tremor that upturned millions of lives in the pre-dawn hours of Monday.

He said of the death toll in an interview with Sky News on Saturday: “I think it is difficult to estimate precisely as we need to get under the rubble but I’m sure it will double or more.”

“We haven’t really begun to count the number of dead,” he said.

Officials and medics said 24,617 people were killed in Turkey and 3,574 in Syria. The confirmed total now stands at 28,191.

Tens of thousands of rescue workers are scouring flattened neighborhoods despite freezing weather that has deepened the misery of millions now in desperate need of aid.

Martin Griffiths, of the United Kingdom, speaks as the Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, during a Security Council meeting on the maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine, February 6, 2023, at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

The United Nations has warned that at least 870,000 people urgently need hot meals across Turkey and Syria. Up to 5.3 million people may have been made homeless in Syria alone.

Almost 26 million people have been affected by the earthquake, the World Health Organization (WHO) said as it launched a flash appeal on Saturday for $42.8 million to cope with immediate health needs.

Turkey’s disaster agency said more than 32,000 people from Turkish organizations are working on search-and-rescue efforts. There are also 8,294 international rescuers, including from Israel.

What I saw today in #Türkiye was devastating.

What were once homes, filled with families and memories, now lay contorted and tangled.

Our thoughts are with those affected and we will continue to support in any way we can. pic.twitter.com/bhMDR1oEGN

— Tom Fletcher (@UNReliefChief) February 11, 2023

“Soon, the search and rescue people will make way for the humanitarian agencies whose job it is to look after the extraordinary numbers of those affected for the next months,” Griffiths said in a video posted to Twitter.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.