Death toll exceeds 48,400 in Feb 6 quakes: Interior minister

MALATYA

At least 48,448 people lost their lives in the devastating earthquakes that rattled the country’s south on Feb. 6, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has announced.

Some 6,660 of the dead were foreign nationals, Soylu said at a press conference in the eastern quake-hit province of Malatya.

The debris removal works are ongoing without interruption, Soylu added.

Providing information regarding the temporary shelters in the region, Soylu noted that more than 433,500 tents have been installed in the earthquake-hit provinces so far.

As of March 13, the number of containers planned to be installed is 115, 585, he said.

“In other words, 115,585 families will be able to stay in containers,” Soylu added.

The number of containers whose installation has been completed is nearly 21,000, while approximately 85,000 people have started to live in containers.

The number of mobile toilets in the region is 13,808.

Meanwhile, the aftershocks still continue in the region. A 4.4 magnitude earthquake occurred in the southern province of Adana on March 13.

There is no loss of life or damage in the buildings, Türkiye’s Emergency and Disaster Management Presidency (AFAD) reported just after the tremor.

Two earthquakes of magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 in Türkiye’s south affected 11 southern provinces on Feb. 6, destroying thousands of houses, workplaces and historical structures.

More than 13.5 million people in Türkiye have been affected by the devastating quakes, as well as many others in the neighboring country of Syria.