A senior World Health Organization official warned on Monday that the death toll from the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria could rise “eightfold” as relief efforts continue.
Catherine Smallwood, the WHO’s senior emergency official for Europe, told AFP that injuries and deaths related to major earthquakes often rise “significantly” in the week following a disaster. He made the comments when the estimated death toll was 2,600, meaning the death toll could rise to more than 20,000.
“There is a continued potential for further collapse, so we often see increases on the order of eight times the initial numbers,” Smallwood told the news agency. “We always see the same thing with earthquakes, unfortunately, which is that the initial reports of the number of people killed or injured will increase quite significantly in the coming week.”
Within 24 hours of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake and a series of major aftershocks, more than 5,000 people were confirmed dead and at least 20,000 injured. Winter cold and heavy rains have complicated relief and recovery plans for thousands of people left homeless.
Rescue teams from across Europe and around the world rushed to Turkey and Syria to support local efforts to clear thousands of collapsed buildings. Turkish officials said at least 5,600 buildings were destroyed in the quakes, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan predicted bleak days ahead.
“We don’t know where the number of dead and wounded is going,” he said. “Everyone puts their heart into it, even if the winter season, the cold and the earthquake that happens at night make things difficult.”
Reuters notes that earthquakes of similar magnitude have killed thousands, pointing to a feared magnitude 7.8 that killed 9,000 people in Nepal in 2015.
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