Turkey resumed work on Monday to clear debris from collapsed buildings after rescue operations stopped two weeks after a major earthquake that killed more than 46,000 people in southern Turkey and northwest Syria.
Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said about 13,000 excavators, cranes, trucks and other industrial vehicles had been dispatched to the quake zone.
The death toll in Turkey had risen to 41,020, AFAD said, and it was expected to rise, with some 385,000 apartments in the country destroyed or severely damaged and many more people still missing.
The United Nations Sexual and Reproductive Health Agency (UNFPA) said over the weekend that there are about 356,000 pregnant women among survivors of the February 6 earthquake in Turkey and Syria who need immediate access to reproductive health services.
The women include 226,000 in Turkey and 130,000 in Syria, of whom about 38,800 will give birth in the next month.