The death toll from the devastating earthquake that hit eastern Turkey last week has risen to 596, the government’s emergency unit said on Sunday.
More than 4,150 people were injured in the 7.2 magnitude quake that shook the eastern Van province near the Iranian border a week ago on October 23, the unit said in a statement on its website. About 231 people had been pulled out alive from the rubble, Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said.
The town of Ercis had taken the brunt of the damage from the quake, which is one of Turkey’s strongest since 1999, when two strong earthquakes in the heavily populated northwest Turkey left some 20,000 dead.
