The death toll from earthquakes in Turkey and Syria has risen to nearly 8,000 with tens of thousands injured, authorities said, as rescue efforts scrambled three days after one of the region’s worst disasters in decades.
Rescue teams worked through the night to pull survivors from the rubble in towns and cities in southern Turkey and northern Syria, which were rocked by two powerful earthquakes and several aftershocks on Monday. Television stations and local newspapers showed scenes of victims of the disaster that emphasized the growing number of victims in the region.
The death toll in Turkey reached 5,894 on Wednesday, with authorities reporting that 34,810 people were injured. In Syria, more than 2,000 people have been killed, according to reports from government and civil defense officials in the rebel-held northwest.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday declared a state of emergency in the affected areas, empowering the government to deal with the crisis. Erdoğan is set on Wednesday to visit the affected areas, according to state media.
More than 10,000 people are involved in the rescue operation, but freezing weather conditions, snow and poor infrastructure make it difficult to transport machinery, personnel and aid.
“The scale of the disaster is catastrophic,” said Tanya Evans, Syria country director for the US-based International Rescue Committee, adding that the quake and aftershocks had “damaged roads, crossed borders and critical infrastructure, hampered relief efforts”.
Countries including the US, UK, India and China have sent rescue teams to Turkey to help local response efforts, while domestic and international aid agencies are providing personnel and materials. The United Nations on Tuesday announced a $25 million fund to support relief efforts.
“As people in the region suffer the consequences of this tragedy, we want to let them know that they are not alone,” said Martin Griffiths, the secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency aid coordinator.
Experts say the poor quality of construction and lack of earthquake resistance in the area caused the damage. Thousands of structures collapsed after an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 on Saturday – one of the worst natural disasters in modern Turkish history, and which was followed hours later by another, 7.5 magnitude tremor.
“It’s very dangerous and it’s an important feature,” said Caroline McMullan, director of risk management at Verisk in London. “There’s a lot of focus behind it on the quality of the building’s design.”
Verisk estimates that the global insurance industry could suffer billions of euros in losses from the disaster. Robert Muir-Wood, chief research officer at Moody’s RMS, another provider of risk models, estimated that Turkey’s public-private earthquake insurance scheme could take a hit of up to $1 billion, which would be shared with international reinsurance.
Big European insurers Allianz and Axa, which have Turkish subsidiaries, said it was too early to estimate losses, a message echoed by reinsurer Munich Re, one of Europe’s biggest insurers.
An Allianz spokesman said the group’s earthquake risk was “predominantly reinsured”.
The expected economic toll has been asked by the turmoil in the Turkish stock market, with the benchmark Bist 100 index sliding 8.6 percent on Friday, twice tripping “circuit breakers” designed to ease panic selling. Tuesday’s slide was the market’s steepest in nearly two years and is down 18 percent in 2023.
Additional reporting by Raya Jalabi in Ankara