Turkey was hit with another powerful 5.4 magnitude tremor on Tuesday morning which happened at around 7.10am UK time, and the US Geological Survey (USGS) said that around 30 minutes earlier another aftershock struck measuring 4.5 in the Richter scale.
Since midnight Turkey has been hit with a total of 14 earthquakes and some 285 aftershocks which could continue for many days making the rescue efforts more dangerous.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the death toll could be as high as 20,000 over the course of the week and officials have confirmed that more than 5,000 have died so far whilst they were sleeping when the first quake hit measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale.
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According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), on Monday, they warned that the death toll could reach as high as 10,000.
Officials have confirmed that more than 7,000 people have been rescued across 10 regions, over 13,000 people have been injured and hundreds of rescue teams are flying to Turkey from all over the world to help.
Catherine Smallwood, WHO’s senior emergency officer for Europe, said that sadly deaths often rise the week after a major earthquake.
She warned of the “potential of further collapses” of buildings as thousands remain unstable and could fall at any moment as tremors are still being felt.
This will definitely put more lives at risk, sh added that officials “always see the same thing with earthquakes,” and initial reports are warning that this will likely lead to an “increase” which will be “quite significant in the week that follows.”
The powerful earthquake also hit neighbouring Syria and even the capital Damascus which is far south, tremors were also felt in the Middle East, Egypt and Cyprus where a “small tsunami” alert was ordered which struck off the Famagusta coast line on Monday morning.
A doctor who is on the ground in Gaziantep described the sheer horror of the scale of destruction and said “it’s terrifying.”
Country director of Turkey and Syria Human Appeal, Dr Ubeyd Sakin, said that whilst there is mass destruction in the city, it is a far worse situation on the outskirts of Gaziantep.
Dr Sakin told Sky News at around 15:30 on Monday afternoon, “Around 45 minutes ago there was an aftershock of more than 6 magnitude, and it did cause extra damage,” Dr Sakin added.
“This is the second-biggest earthquake in the last century… I was with my family and all of a sudden it became chaos.
“It is terrifying.”
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