Turkey and Syria Earthquake Victims Increase Rapidly, Cold Temperatures Increasingly Troublesome

The impact of the earthquake in Turkey. (Wikimedia Commons/O memoulcan Bakiler/VOA)

JAKARTA - In a disaster, let alone a big one, the number of victims can indeed change in a matter of seconds. Likewise with the super strong earthquake that occurred in Turkey and Syria.

Data from the BBC, Tuesday, February 7, the death toll was reported to have risen to 4.372. That figure has been confirmed at least until this news was revealed.

Casualties in Turkey rose to 2.921 as of Tuesday morning, according to Yunus Sezer, head of Turkey's disaster services. A total of 15.834 injuries have been reported.

In Syria, 1.451 deaths and 3.531 injuries have been reported by officials.

A new problem appears. It's not just about evacuating victims from collapsed buildings.

The freezing winter weather compounded the suffering of thousands of people who were injured or made homeless and hampered efforts to find survivors.

The magnitude 7.8 quake toppled entire apartment blocks in Turkish cities and piled even more devastation on the millions of Syrians displaced by years of war.

It struck before sunrise in bad weather and was followed in the afternoon by another major earthquake.

In Diyarbakir in Turkey's southeast, a woman speaking beside the ruins of the seven-story block where she lived said: "We were shaken like a cradle. We are nine at home. My two sons are still in the rubble. I am waiting for them."

"It's like the apocalypse," said Abdul Salam al-Mahmoud, a Syrian in the northern city of Atareb.

"It's cold and there is heavy rain, and people need to be rescued."