Team probing Afghans’ situation in quake-hit areas in Turkey

ATLANTA (Pajhwok): The Afghan Embassy in Turkey has sent a delegation to the earthquake-devastated areas of the country to learn the situation of Afghans living there and casualties they suffered.

Mohammad Mussadiq Faqiri, deputy of the Afghan embassy in Ankara, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Friday the delegation would share its report and information with the embassy after its investigations.

The information would be shared with the media, he promised, adding that currently the Turkish government’s and the international community’s priority was delivery of aid and rescue operations.

He said unofficial and unverified reports he had received from the Afghans living in Turkey showed more than 100 Afghans might have lost their lives in the tragedy.

Some media reports quoting Afghans living in Turkey said up to 100 Afghans had been killed in the earthquake.

Two successive poweful earthquakes jolted southeast Turkey and western Syria on Monday morning. According to the United States Geological Survey, the magnitude of the first earthquake was 7.8 on the Richter scale and the second was 7.5.

Turkey's Anadolu Agency reported the tremors caused devastations in ten provinces and heavy financial and life losses.

The Turkish government says more than 16,000 people have died and around 65,000 others have been injured due to the earthquake.

In Syria, 5,000 people died and thousands more were injured.

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