IFRC Says Syria May Have More People Under Rubble Than Turkey, Expects Many Missing, Death toll tops 16,000

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) believes that Syria may have more people under the rubble than Turkey following the devastating earthquakes and expects a huge number of those to be missing, Under-Secretary-General for Operations Coordination Xavier Castellanos told Sputnik.

"In Syria, my view is that probably we will end up having significantly more people under rubble than in Turkey, but numbers will tell us, there will be a moment in time when we will talk about missing people because there will not be guarantee what happened with them," Castellanos said in an interview.

•   The death toll from a huge earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria climbed to more than 16,000 on Thursday, as rescuers raced to reach survivors stuck under rubble in freezing weather.

 
Officials and medics said 12,873 people had died in Turkey and 3,162 in Syria from Monday's 7.8-magnitude tremor, bringing the confirmed total to 16,035.