A World Health Organization (WHO) official has warned that the death toll in Turkey could reach the five-figure range.
Speaking to the AFP news agency this morning, Catherine Smallwood, WHO’s senior emergency officer for Europe, warned the number of deaths could reach 20,000.
Speaking as the death toll hit 2,600, she warned it could increase “eightfold” in the coming week.
She said: “There’s continued potential of further collapses to happen so we do often see in the order of eightfold increases on the initial numbers.
“We always see the same thing with earthquakes, unfortunately, which is that the initial reports of the numbers of people who have died or who have been injured will increase quite significantly in the week that follows.”
Swarms of aftershocks continue to rock communities in Syria and Turkey this morning.
Hundreds of tremors have shaken regions with magnitudes of five and beyond, placing additional lives at risk.
More than 200 since yesterday have hampered search and rescue efforts, with an aid worker having died after a building collapsed.