Syrian quake survivors 'starving' six months on, says Cork priest leading aid efforts

Jesuit Refugee Service director Fr Tony O’Riordan amid ruins in Aleppo caused by February's earthquake which struck a country already devastated by the 12-year civil war. Picture: David Raleigh

A priest from Cork who is working in Syria with survivors of the one of the world’s deadliest earthquakes ever recorded has said that, six months on, the people there are now “starving”.

The estimated death toll of the earthquake — measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale — is in the region of 59,259, with 50,783 dead in Turkey and 8,476 in Syria.