The death toll from a massive earthquake in Turkey and Syria is likely to “double or more” from its current level of 28,000, United Nations relief chief Martin Griffiths told Sky News.
“I think it is difficult to estimate precisely as we need to get under the rubble, but I’m sure it will double or more,” said Griffiths after travelling to the city of Kahramanmaras in Turkey, the epicenter of the first earthquake. “We haven’t really begun to count the number of dead,” he said.
The estimate would take the tally of deaths to around three times the 17,118 dead following the huge earthquake in northwestern Turkey in 1999.
On February 6, a series of large earthquakes hit southern Turkey and northern Syria, followed by hundreds of aftershocks.
Rescue teams are still out searching for survivors. “Soon, the search and rescue people will make way for the humanitarian agencies whose job it is to look after the extraordinary numbers of those affected for the next months,” Griffiths said in a video posted to Twitter.
Almost 26 million people have been affected by the earthquake, the World Health Organization said.
