Turkey earthquake: Rescue efforts called off except two provinces

New Delhi: Turkey has called off the rescue operations in all other provinces except the two worst hit in the 6 February earthquake.

The Kahramanmaras province, the epicentre of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake, and the Hatay province will have the rescue efforts go on for now.

“In many of our provinces, search and rescue efforts have been completed. They continue in Kahramanmaras and Hatay provinces,” Turkey’s disaster agency chief Yunus Sezer told reporters in Ankara.

The earthquake, which is said to be the worst in Turkey’s post-Ottoman history, spread out to most of the country’s southern and crossed into northern Syria.

So far, over 46,000 people have been reported to have died due to the quake.

The death toll is expected to increase as 345,000 apartments in Turkey are known to have been destroyed and many people are still missing.

Neither Turkey nor Syria have said how many people are still unaccounted for.