Death toll rises above 4,000 after Turkey, Syria earthquakes

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan has declared seven days of national mourning, and Syria has appealed to the United Nations for help following devastating earthquakes that killed more than 4,600 people and toppled buildings across southeast Turkey and northern Syria.

Authorities fear the death toll from Monday’s predawn magnitude 7.8 temblor, followed by a magnitude 7.6 earthquake and several aftershocks will continue to climb as rescuers looked for survivors among tangles of metal and concrete spread across a region already suffering under Syria’s 12-year civil war and a refugee crisis.

Monday’s quake is believed to be the strongest to hit Turkey since 1939, when an earthquake of the same magnitude killed 30,000 people, according to the USGS.

Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), gave the number of dead in Turkey at 3,381 on Tuesday morning, while 15,834 others were injured.

In Syria, at least 1,300 people were killed, according to the Ministry of Health and the White Helmets rescue organization on Monday evening.