The number of victims of earthquakes in Turkey has increased to almost 48.5 thousand people.

The death toll from the February 6 earthquake in Turkey’s southeast has reached 48,448, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Monday.

⠀

Earthquakes of magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 occurred on February 6 with an interval of nine hours in the province of Kahramanmaras in southeastern Turkey. Tremors were felt in 11 provinces of the country and neighboring states, including Syria. The Turkish authorities have called the earthquake “the catastrophe of the century.”

⠀

“The death toll has reached 48,448, including 6,660 foreigners,” Soylu said at a briefing in Malatya.

⠀

According to him, the bodies of 1,615 dead have not yet been identified.