Residents, supported with heavy equipment, search for victims and survivors among the rubble of collapsed buildings in the village of Besnia in Syria’s Idlib province, on February 6.
The head of the country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Agency said the death toll in Turkey had risen to 1,498.
Orhan Tatar said all areas affected by the quake had been reached by teams, adding that reinforcements were continuing.
At least 8,533 people were injured in the quake, Tatar said, adding that 2,834 buildings were destroyed in southeastern Turkey.
The total death toll in Syria is more than 800.
Turkey’s education ministry said schools across the country will be closed until February 13 following today’s earthquake.
Turkey’s emergency and disaster management agency, AFAD, is deploying 1,898 search and rescue personnel along with 150 vehicles to respond to the deadly earthquake.
Turkey’s national police force has deployed 130 members of a tactical unit, along with a mobile command center and kitchen, to the city of Kahramanmaras, near the epicenter of the quake. A total of 300,000 blankets were also sent to the region in the midst of the cold winter.
On February 6, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs directed the Vietnamese Embassy in Turkey and the Vietnamese Embassy in Iran (concurrently Syria) to contact local authorities and the Vietnamese community to find understand information and be ready to take measures to protect citizens in case there are Vietnamese citizens who are victims of the earthquake that occurred in the morning of the same day.
Until the end of February 6, there was no information regarding Vietnamese citizens affected by the earthquake.
