The death toll from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria exceeded 21,000 on the 9th (local time). The death toll from the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 (19,846) has been exceeded. Foreign media including CNN reported that the cumulative number of deaths by the fourth day of the earthquake was 17,674 in Turkey and 3,377 in Syria. It is estimated that more than 78,000 people were injured in the two countries.
In major affected areas, the New York Times (NYT) and others report that a terrifying scene continues, with outdoor parking lots and gyms being turned into huge morgues. Hundreds of body bags (body bags) were lined up in the outdoor parking lot of a hospital in Turkey, Hatay Province. In a cemetery in Kahramanmaras, wooden pieces with names written in pens are lined up without a proper epitaph or title. According to the New York Times, many people are burying dead bodies in haste after wiping them with sand and soil according to Islamic funeral procedures in times of disaster or water shortage.
There are concerns that the number of deaths will continue to rise significantly for the time being. “Up to 200,000 people are trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings, but it is highly unlikely that they will survive,” said earthquake expert Professor Obgun Ahmet of Istanbul Technical University on Twitter.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that there was a 24% chance that the death toll would exceed 100,000. In the first report immediately after the earthquake, it was 0%, and on the 8th it was 14%, but it increased by 10 percentage points in two days. Only two tsunamis, in 2004 and 2010, have caused more than 100,000 deaths this century. More than 220,000 people died each in Indonesia, India, and Sri Lanka in 2004, and in Haiti in 2010.
| year (year) | area (size) | deaths (persons) |
| 2004 | Indian Ocean (9.3)* | 228,000 (Indonesia India Sri Lanka Thailand) |
| 2010 | Haiti (7.0)* | 222,570 |
| 2008 | Sichuan, China (7.9) | 87,600 |
| 2005 | Pakistan (7.6) | 73,338 |
| 2003 | Iran (6.6) | 31,000 |
| 2023 | turkiye(7.8) | 20,1000 (Turkey Syria) |
| 2001 | India (7.7) | 20,000 |
| 2011 | Japan (9.0)* | 19,846 |
| 2015 | Nepal (7.8) | 9000 |
| 2006 | Indonesia Java (6.2) | 5778 |
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.