Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday (February 10) the response to the massive earthquakes in the country's south had had not been "as fast as we hoped," adding that the death toll in the country had climbed to 18,991, Reuters reports.
"Despite the fact that we have gathered perhaps one of largest search and rescue team to the region with more than 141,000 members, unfortunately, it is a fact that we have not been able to respond as fast as we hoped," he said in Adiyaman province where he met quake victims.
Erdogan said some people were robbing markets and attacking businesses, adding that a state of emergency declared in the area will allow the state to impose the necessary penalties.
The death toll from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake and several powerful aftershocks across both Turkey and Syria has surpassed the more than 17,000 killed in 1999 when a similarly powerful earthquake hit northwest Turkey.
It now ranks as the seventh most deadly natural disaster this century, ahead of Japan's 2011 tremor and tsunami and approaching the 31,000 killed by a quake in neighboring Iran in 2003.
