Erdogan tours earthquake zone as casualty count rises
The Turkish president visited the epicenter of the quake in Kahramanmaras to pledge state aid to victims, but many remain angry at the government's response.
Some 57 hours after earthquakes rocked southern Turkey, leaving thousands dead and many more homeless, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in the disaster zone as those trapped under the rubble faced a third night in freezing temperatures.
Erdogan flew into Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of Monday’s quakes, before heading to Hatay, a province between the Mediterranean Sea and the Syrian border that has seen the highest number of deaths.
Speaking from Hatay, he announced the latest casualty figures: 9,057 dead and 52,979 injured. More than a third of the fatalities occurred in Hatay, even though it lies more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the epicenter of the first and most powerful tremor.
“Undoubtedly, our job was not easy,” he said in televised comments. “The difficulty of weather conditions added to the extent of this earthquake, which was effective in an area of 500 kilometers where approximately 13.5 million people live."
