ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th January, 2020) The death toll from the Friday earthquake in Turkey's east has reached 18 people while the number of injured persons has risen to 553, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Saturday.
A 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit the Elazig province at 8.55 p.m. local time (17:55 GMT). The disaster also affected the neighboring province of Malatya.
"13 people died in the province of Elazig, five in Malatya. 553 people have been hospitalized or asked for medical assistance," Soylu told reporters.
Turkey is located in a seismically active zone and often suffers from powerful earthquakes. Two deadliest earthquakes in the country occurred in 115 AD and 526 AD. Both disasters devastated the city of Antioch, leaving some 260,000 and 250,000 people dead, respectively.
