"Death toll is four-five times more than official numbers"

"Death toll is four-five times more than official numbers"
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Osman Bilgin, the governor in charge of coordinating the government's response to the earthquake, said in a brief interview with earthquake victims that the number of people who died in the disaster was four to five times the official death toll.

In a video recorded in Nurdagi district in Gaziantep province, the coordinator governor, Osman Bilgin, can be seen saying that the actual death toll after the massive earthquakes in Turkey, which affected 10 provinces, is much higher than the official figure.

The video shows Bilgin apologizing to earthquake victims for being late in earthquake response and while explaining the reasons he says the situation is much worse.

“Sorry, maybe we're late, but the situation is much more dire than you see and know. Three, four, maybe five times worse than the figures announced,” Bilgin said adding that many provinces will be completely demolished rebuilt.

“What you is not like other earthquakes, the cities will be deleted from the map, new maps will be created,” he said.

The 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey's southeast killing more than 41,000 people and leaving a million-plus homeless, with the economic cost of the disaster expected to run into billions of dollars.