Several people were rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building in south Turkey, including a six-year-old girl and a 70-year-old woman, a week after a massive earthquake struck. The miracle rescues come as the death toll in the earthquake rose above 36,000. Officials and medics reported Monday morning that at least 31,643 people had died in southern Turkey and 3,581 in northern Syria since the 7.8-magnitude temblor struck early on February 6. The death toll is expected to continue to rise. More than 2,000 earthquakes have hit the region in the last seven days, according to reports.
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Also on Monday, Martin Griffiths, under-secretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said during a visit to the hard-hit area of Aleppo, Syria, that the rescue phase is “coming to a close,” and that it is important now to focus on providing shelter, food, school and psychosocial care to those affected by the quake. Griffiths had previously visited Kahramanmara, Turkey, where he projected that the death toll would ultimately top 55,000 and that “I am here to make sure that these people also are not forgotten.”
Meanwhile, the Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation said Monday that the earthquake could cost Ankara up to $84.1 billion, including rebuilding housing, transmission lines and infrastructure, and meeting the short, medium and long-term shelter needs of the hundreds of thousands left homeless by the temblor.