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Quake Death Toll Nears 48,000 in Türkiye, 6,000 in Syria

A man rides his motorcycle in a destroyed neighborhood among the rubble of collapsed buildings in Hatay, on March 7, 2023, one month after a massive earthquake struck southeastern Türkiye. (AFP)
A man rides his motorcycle in a destroyed neighborhood among the rubble of collapsed buildings in Hatay, on March 7, 2023, one month after a massive earthquake struck southeastern Türkiye. (AFP)
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Quake Death Toll Nears 48,000 in Türkiye, 6,000 in Syria

A man rides his motorcycle in a destroyed neighborhood among the rubble of collapsed buildings in Hatay, on March 7, 2023, one month after a massive earthquake struck southeastern Türkiye. (AFP)
A man rides his motorcycle in a destroyed neighborhood among the rubble of collapsed buildings in Hatay, on March 7, 2023, one month after a massive earthquake struck southeastern Türkiye. (AFP)

The head of Türkiye’s disaster and emergency management agency has raised the country's death toll from a magnitude 7.8 earthquake last month to 47,975.

Yunus Sezer said during a news conference on Saturday that the people who died included 6,278 foreigners, with Syrian nationals accounting for the largest share.

The Feb. 6 quake affected 11 Turkish provinces and parts of neighboring Syria. The United Nations has estimated Syria's death toll at 6,000.

The quake was followed by a magnitude 7.5 temblor hours later, as well as thousands of aftershocks.

At least 230,000 buildings were destroyed or badly damaged in Türkiye. Experts have pointed at lax building code enforcement as a major reason why the earthquake was so deadly.

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Traffic on French High-Speed Trains Gradually Improving after Sabotage

Workers operate to reconnect the signal box to the track in its technical ducts in Vald' Yerres, near Chartres on July 26, 2024, as France's high-speed rail network was hit by an attack disrupting the transport system, hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (AFP)
Workers operate to reconnect the signal box to the track in its technical ducts in Vald' Yerres, near Chartres on July 26, 2024, as France's high-speed rail network was hit by an attack disrupting the transport system, hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (AFP)
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Traffic on French High-Speed Trains Gradually Improving after Sabotage

Workers operate to reconnect the signal box to the track in its technical ducts in Vald' Yerres, near Chartres on July 26, 2024, as France's high-speed rail network was hit by an attack disrupting the transport system, hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (AFP)
Workers operate to reconnect the signal box to the track in its technical ducts in Vald' Yerres, near Chartres on July 26, 2024, as France's high-speed rail network was hit by an attack disrupting the transport system, hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (AFP)

Traffic on France's TGV high-speed trains was gradually returning to normal on Saturday after engineers worked overnight repairing sabotaged signal stations and cables that caused travel chaos on Friday, the opening day of the Paris Olympic Games.

In Friday's pre-dawn attacks on the high-speed rail network vandals damaged infrastructure along the lines connecting Paris with cities such as Lille in the north, Bordeaux in the west and Strasbourg in the east. Another attack on the Paris-Marseille line was foiled, French rail operator SNCF said.

There has been no immediate claim of responsibility.

"On the Eastern high-speed line, traffic resumed normally this morning at 6:30 a.m. while on the North, Brittany and South-West high-speed lines, 7 out of 10 trains on average will run with delays of 1 to 2 hours," SNCF said in a statement on Saturday morning.

"At this stage, traffic will remain disrupted on Sunday on the North axis and should improve on the Atlantic axis for weekend returns," it added.

SNCF reiterated that transport plans for teams competing in the Olympics would be guaranteed.