Turkey, Syria earthquake death toll nearly 42,000

People in Turkey and Syria waited by piles of rubble on Thursday for rescue crews to dig out their loved ones. Some were praying that they had survived. Others were waiting to say goodbye and to bury them. Ten days after the earthquake, some people were still being pulled alive from the rubble, but the odds of survival were not good. Turkey’s disaster management agency, AFAD, on Thursday revised the country’s death toll to more than 36,000. The United Nations estimated the Syrian death toll to be about 6,000, though the Syrian government reported nearly 4,000.

Why is this earthquake so deadly? Nearly 47,000 buildings across the affected region collapsed or were seriously damaged, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday. Turkey is conducting an investigation into at least 113 people it says are responsible for the collapse of buildings, Vice President Fuat Oktay said last week. Critics say Erdogan’s government did not enforce those building regulations, but the president has denied the accusations, calling them lies.

Dig deeper: Read Sharon Dierberger and Onize Ohikere’s report in WORLD Magazine on agencies trying to get aid to the region.