GENEVA, February 9. /TASS/. Director General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday he had departed to Syria to coordinate aid to victims of the recent earthquake.

"On my way to Syria, where WHO is supporting essential health care in the areas affected by the recent earthquake, building on our long-standing work across the country," the WHO chief wrote on Twitter.

A powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked Turkey’s Kahramanmaras province, located in the country’s southeast, on February 6. The tremors, followed by hundreds of aftershocks, were felt in ten provinces as well as in neighboring countries, including Syria. The latest reports say that over 17,000 people have lost their lives in Turkey and about 72,000 have been injured. According to the Syrian Health Ministry, the devastating quake has left 1,347 people dead in the already war-ravaged Middle Eastern country, with the number of those injured exceeding 2,200.