Rising toll makes quake worst in Turkey’s modern history

People stand by a collapsed building in Adiyaman, southern Turkey (Emrah Gurel/AP)

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Tuesday that 35,418 people have died in Turkey as a result of last week’s earthquake, making it the deadliest such disaster since the country’s founding 100 years ago.

Confirmed deaths passed those recorded from the massive Erzincan earthquake in 1939 that killed around 33,000 people.

Mr Erdogan said 105,505 people were injured as a result of the February 6 quake centred around Kahramanmaras and its aftershocks.

Almost 3,700 deaths have been confirmed in neighbouring Syria, taking the combined toll in both countries to over 39,000.

The Turkish president, who has referred to the quakes as “the disaster of the century”, said more than 13,000 people were still being treated in hospital.

Speaking in Ankara following a five-hour Cabinet meeting held at the headquarters of disaster agency AFAD, Mr Erdogan said 47,000 buildings, which contained 211,000 residences, had either been destroyed or were so badly damaged as to require demolition.

“We will continue our work until we get our last citizen out of the destroyed buildings,” Mr Erdogan said of ongoing rescue efforts.