Turkey-Syria Earthquake: Death Toll Passes 36,000

By Staff, Agencies

One week after devastating earthquakes tore through southern Turkey and northwestern Syria, the death toll in both countries passed 36,000 on Monday, and tens of thousands of survivors have been left injured or homeless.

The death toll across Syria and Turkey rose to 36,217 on Monday.

In Turkey, 31,643 people were recorded dead, the country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority [AFAD] said. In Syria, 4,614 people have died.

In Syria, the disaster hit hardest in the country’s northwest, leaving homeless yet again many people who had already been displaced several times by a decade-old war.

More than six days after the first quake struck, emergency workers still found a handful of people clinging to life in the wreckage of homes that had become tombs for many thousands.

The quake ranks as the world's sixth deadliest natural disaster this century, its death toll exceeding the 31,000 from a quake in neighboring Iran in 2003.