Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Turkiye’s earthquake death toll has reached 18,991 and more than 75,000 injured, making it the most devastating earthquake since the 1939 disaster, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

“According to the latest data, 18,991 people died in the ten provinces affected by the disaster. There are 75,523 injured,” Erdogan said at a briefing.

Also on Friday, Turkiye’s Disaster Management Authority (AFAD) said more than 80,000 people had been evacuated from the disaster area.

Thus, the 6 February earthquakes surpassed the 1999 disaster in terms of the number of victims - then one of the strongest earthquakes in Turkiye occurred on August 17 off the coast of the Sea of Marmara. The magnitude was 7.5 on the Richter scale. Then the epicenter was near the industrial city of Izmit, located 80 kilometers east of Istanbul. According to official figures, 17,480 people died, 23,781 were injured, 285,211 houses and 42,902 non-residential buildings were damaged. A parliamentary research report released in 2010 raised the death toll to 18,373.

In 1939, the most devastating earthquake in modern Turkish history occurred in Erzincan, in the east of the country, killing more than 32,000 people.

An earthquake of magnitude 7.7 struck southeastern Turkiye on Monday morning. It, according to Recep Erdogan, has become the strongest since 1939. On the afternoon of the same day, another earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck. The tremors, followed by hundreds of aftershocks, were felt in 10 provinces of the country and neighboring states, including Syria.