Death toll from quake in Turkey reaches 18,991 - Erdogan

ISTANBUL. Feb 10 (Interfax) - The death toll from the powerful earthquake in Turkey has reached 18,991, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

"The death toll from the earthquake, whose epicenter was in Turkey's Kahramanmaras, has reached 18,991," the Anadolu news agency quoted Erdogan as saying.

It was earlier reported on 18,342 deaths and over 74,000 injuries.

More than 76,000 people have been evacuated from the quake-hit areas to other regions of the country, the president said.

The state of emergency should prevent attempted robberies and other crimes in the affected areas, he said.

Al Jazeera reported 3,377 deaths in Syria. The total death toll has thus exceeded 22,300.

A powerful earthquake in the early hours of Monday and its subsequent aftershocks caused substantial damage and loss of life in several provinces of Turkey and neighboring Syria.