Newsman: The death toll of earthquake surged to more than 6,000 early Tuesday in Turkey and the Syrian side of border combined. An untold number were believed trapped under the rubble of thousands of collapsed buildings in freezing winter. And the injury and death toll was expected to rise as rescue workers dug through the wreckage. Thousands of survivors were left homeless in the cold rain and snow according to officials.
Thousands of search-and-rescue personnel, firefighters and medics across 10 Turkish provinces, along with some 3,500 soldiers and numerous civilians, defied cold, rainy weather, darkness as they attempted to rescue survivors.
About 2,500 people were pulled from the rubble. Schools across much of the country will be closed for at least one week, and schools closer to the quake for two weeks, officials said.
Turkey’s Vice President Fuat Oktay said the total number of deaths in Turkey had risen to 3,419, with another 20,534 people injured. That brought the number of people killed to 5,102, with another 1,602 people confirmed dead on the Syrian side of the border. In the country’s rebel-held northwest, groups that operate there said at least 450 people died, with many hundreds injured.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at least 11,000 people are injured and he declared seven days of national mourning. Later in the day, he spoke with President Joe Biden, who pledged U.S. assistance. The White House said that included sending two urban search and rescue teams.
Thousands of buildings were reported collapsed from the Syrian cities of Aleppo and Hama to Turkey’s Diyarbakir, more than 200 miles to the northeast.
