The death toll from two massive earthquakes and scores of aftershocks has risen to nearly 8,000 in Turkey and Syria, officials said, as rescuers continue to comb the rubble for survivors in freezing temperatures.
Turkey’s vice president, Fuat Oktay, told reporters early Wednesday that 5,894 people have been killed and 34,810 injured. In government-controlled parts of Syria, at least 812 people were killed and 1,449 injured, according to state media. In the rebel-held northwest of Syria, civil defense workers reported more than 1,220 deaths and more than 2,600 injured, a number they said they expected to rise “significantly” as hundreds remain buried under the rubble.
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