Authorities say more than 50,500 buildings have collapsed or sustained serious damage.
15 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), under the Turkish Ministry of the Interior, has pointed this Wednesday to an “unusual situation” during search and rescue tasks after the earthquakes registered last week in the south of the country, near the border with Syria, as about 3,900 aftershocks have been recorded since then.
“There was a very intense aftershock. We are facing an unusual situation. Up to now, 3,858 aftershocks have been registered,” said AFAD Director General for Risk Reduction, Orhan Tatar, who also confirmed that land displacements cause of the earthquake are in some points more than seven meters, as reported by the Turkish state news agency, Anatolia.
Likewise, the Ministry of Urban Planning of Turkey has indicated in a statement on its website that more than 50,500 buildings have collapsed or have suffered serious material damage due to the earthquakes, which have left nearly 40,000 dead in Turkey and Syria, according to official balances.
The ministry has specified that it has carried out inspections in more than 387,000 buildings after the earthquakes and has pointed out that 50,576 collapsed or need “urgent demolition” due to the serious structural damage suffered. In this line, it has specified that 11,114 buildings have suffered “moderate” damage, while 99,300 have suffered “light” damage.
The Minister of Urban Planning, Murat Kurum, has stressed that “efforts to analyze the damage continue”, before describing the earthquakes as “the disaster of the century”. Finally, he stressed that the authorities “will quickly demolish what has to be demolished in order to build safer houses.”
