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Death Toll From Quake in Turkiye Rises to 40,689

ANKARA (Sputnik) - The number of deaths in the devastating earthquake that rocked Turkiye early last week climbed to 40,689 on Sunday, the head of the disaster management authority AFAD said.
Sputnik
"Unfortunately, the death toll keeps rising. It stands at 40,689," Yunus Sezer, the head of the disaster management authority AFAD, told a news briefing.
The official death count on Saturday stood at 40,642.
The search-and-rescue phase of quake response has been completed in most quake-hit regions of Turkiye, the AFAD chief added.
Powerful earthquakes hit parts of Syria and Turkiye on February 6, toppling thousands of homes. The aftershocks that followed were felt by people in several Turkish provinces and neighboring countries. Turkish authorities have described the earthquakes as the "biggest disaster" in the nation's history, as it nearly wiped out several cities.
For its part, the Syrian Health Ministry said that the final death toll from the earthquake in the government-controlled part of the country had reached 1,410 people, however, United Nations estimates put the total number of deaths in Syria at 8,500.
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