The death toll from Monday morning’s pre-dawn earthquake in Turkey and Syria has surpassed 9,400, making it the deadliest seismic event in the past decade.
Turkish authorities said Wednesday that 6,957 of its citizens died in the quake and the Syrian government reported 1,250 deaths of its own, according to the Associated Press.
SYRIAN WOMAN GIVES BIRTH WHILE TRAPPED UNDER RUBBLE AFTER EARTHQUAKE
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is heading to the south of his country to inspect the recovery efforts there, according to state-run news agency Anadolu.
More than 30,000 people have been injured in the 7.8 magnitude earthquake and the aftershocks, per the Associated Press, and the death toll is expected to climb as more victims are uncovered.
Turkish and Syrian victims buried under rubble pleaded on social media for help, sharing their addresses and praying for someone to help them. One man posted a video on Instagram saying he was trapped.
“Friends, we are stuck under the earthquake,” he said in the video, per Al Jazeera. “Mother! Are you okay? Mother! Tell me you hid somewhere. Please help!”
Author and professor specializing in Turkish relations Louis Fishman shared on Twitter that the Istanbul stock market has been suspended due to the natural disaster. Sharing other information to his tens of thousands of followers, Fishman added that communication in Hatay, a southern Turkish province bordering Syria, has been cut off and rescuers are overwhelmed trying to access all the areas that need help.
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In 2011, a magnitude 9.0 quake off the northeast coast of Japan caused a tsunami, killing nearly 20,000 people. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Nepal in 2015 killed more than 8,800 people, per the Associated Press.
