The death toll from the massive earthquake in Turkey and Syria has surpassed 19,000. An estimated 13.5 million people in Turkey are affected by the quake alone, with millions more in Syria.
The magnitude 7.8 quake, which occurred in southern Turkey and collapsed buildings in that country and Syria, is the deadliest seismic event in the world in more than a decade. A 2011 earthquake in Japan triggered a tsunami that killed more than 19,000 people.Syrians cheer on extraordinary rescues in the earthquake's dire aftermath
On Wednesday, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Kahramanmaras, a city near the epicenter of the quake, telling survivors that"we are face to face with a great disaster." There is growing public anger that the rescue response has been slow, and Erdogan acknowledged there were shortfalls by his government in the immediate aftermath of the quake.
Syria reported that 298,000 of its citizens are displaced, but those figures were in government-controlled parts of the country. Opposition-controlled areas have not yet reported this number.
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