Deathtoll in earthquake nears 50,000

Turkish vice president Fuat Oktay said on Saturday that the death toll due to the twin earthquakes on 6 February has reached 49,589, and 6,807 of the fatalities are foreign nationals.

Speaking at a press conference at the headquarters of Turkey's disaster agency AFAD, Oktay also said that 18 people have been killed by the recent floods in the earthquake zone and three people are still missing.

Noting that 25,000 container homes have been built so far for earthquake survivors, he said that they plan to build a total of 108,000, in admittance that over three fourth of the planned container homes are yet to built, 40 days after the earthquakes struck.

Oktay added that 480,000 tents have been erected providing temporary shelter for some 1.9 million survivors.

He put the number of survivors who applied for change of residence in the context of voter registration system as 345,000.