ANKARA, February 17. /TASS/. The number of people killed as a result of powerful earthquakes that rocked Turkey recently, has surpassed 38,000, the country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) reported on Friday.

"According to the latest figures, a total of 38,044 people died [as a result of earthquakes] in Kahramanmaras, Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Adana, Adiyaman, Osmaniye, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, and Elazig. More than 4,700 aftershocks have struck the region since the first earthquake," the report said.

On February 6, 2023, 7.7 and 7.6-magnitude earthquakes struck Turkey’s Kahramanmaras province in the country’s southeast, nine hours apart. The tremors, followed by hundreds of aftershocks, were also felt in neighboring countries, of which Syria was most affected.