11/01/2020 10:17 AM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 11/01/2020 10:17
The death toll
from Friday's earthquake in the Aegean
increased in the last hours to 49 deaths in Turkey, according to the latest balance published this Sunday by the country's disaster management authority.
To that figure are added two other deaths in Greece, amid new aftershocks and non-stop rescue efforts.
The Turkish Minister of Environment and Urbanization, Murat Kurum, reported that there are currently some 5,000 members of search and rescue personnel trying to find new survivors under the rubble of the dozens of partially or totally collapsed buildings in the city most affected by the earthquake, Smyrna.
There,
around a hundred people were rescued
, while those affected have been living in the 1,800 tents made available by the authorities for two days.
The Turkish Health Minister, Fahrettin Koca, echoed on his Twitter during the early hours of Sunday the rescue of a 70-year-old man from the rubble.
Several people await news from their family and friends who lived in a building that collapsed after the 6.8 magnitude earthquake.
Photo EFE
For its part,
the number of injured is around 900
, according to the authority for disaster management and control in Turkey (AFAD), which is added to another 20 injured in Greece, in particular the island of Samos, the most damaged.
There the two fatalities confirmed by the Hellenic Government have been registered: two students aged 15 and 17.
In a previous update by the Minister of Health, Fahrettin Koca, it was specified that there were seven people hospitalized in intensive care, of which three have a critical prognosis.
The AFAD specified that the epicenter was recorded about 17 kilometers off the coast of Izmir, with a hypocenter at a depth of 16.5 kilometers.
After the earthquake
, at least 484 aftershocks were registered
, 37 of them with a magnitude greater than 4, according to AFAD.
Likewise, the earthquake generated a tsunami that affected the interior of the coasts of both countries, according to the residents themselves in the images circulating on social networks.
Minutes after the declaration of the earthquake, the Greek government offered Turkey all its cooperation to help in the rescue efforts, in a gesture of goodwill after weeks of territorial disputes between the two countries.
"I have just called President Erdogan to offer my condolences for the tragic loss of life caused by the earthquake that has struck our two countries," said Greek Prime Minister Kiriakos Mitsotakis on his Twitter account.
"
Whatever our differences, these are times when our people need to be united,
" he added.
Erdogan, for his part, thanked Mitsotakis for the gesture and offered his condolences "to all of Greece."
"Turkey is also always ready to help Greece heal its wounds," he said in a message posted on his Twitter social network account, where he stated that "two neighbors showing solidarity in difficult times is more valuable than many things in the world. lifetime".
A member of the rescue teams rests after searching for survivors in one of the collapsed buildings.
Photo EFE
The Aegean region is located in one of the most seismically active areas in the world, including one of the potentially most devastating areas in the hemisphere, North Anatolia (NAF), the meeting point of the Anatolian tectonic plates and Eurasia.
The country has suffered devastating earthquakes in the past, including the 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Gölcük in 1999, which killed more than 17,000 people.
The last major earthquake was the one that occurred in January in the east of the country, in the provinces of Elazig and Malatya, which left 41 dead and more than 1,600 injured.
With information from Europa Press.
Look also
Rescues under the rubble and a desperate search after the earthquake in Turkey and Greece
The most shocking videos of the strong earthquake that shook Greece and Turkey