ISTANBUL (AP) – Nearly 45,000 people died two weeks after a devastating earthquake, the death toll in Turkey and Syria rose to eight, officials and media said Tuesday.
Six people were killed and 294 injured, 18 of them in critical condition, after Monday’s magnitude-6.4 earthquake, according to the Turkish Civil Protection Agency. In Syria, a woman and a girl died as a result of panic after earthquakes struck Hama and Tartus provinces, state media reported.
The epicenter of the quake was the city of Dehne in Turkey’s Hatay province, which borders Syria. It was felt in Jordan, Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon and even Egypt, followed by his second tremor of magnitude 5.8 and dozens of aftershocks. Hatay is one of the worst-hit provinces in Turkey when a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck on February 6. Monday’s quake destroyed thousands of buildings and damaged many more in the state. The governor’s office in Antakya, the historical center of Hatay, was also damaged.
Officials have warned earthquake victims not to enter the wreckage of their homes, but people are trying to save what they can. They were caught in another earthquake.