The death toll from a powerful earthquake on the Syria-Turkey border is rising rapidly as reports come in from different areas of both countries.
Some 237 people have been killed in Syrian government-held areas, assistant health minister Ahmed Dhamiriyeh told state television. More than 600 were wounded, he said.
The chairman of Syrian American Medical Society, Bassel Termanini, told dpa that his organization – which covers about 50% of the health care in opposition areas – was reporting 91 killed so far and more than 500 wounded, mainly in areas in the countryside of Aleppo and Idlib.
In Turkey, a total of 284 people had died in the quake, with more than 2,000 injured, Vice President Fuat Oktay said.
The country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said that there had been at least 42 aftershocks.
