The Kerala government on Saturday said it has sanctioned Rs 10 crore as financial assistance to Turkiye, which was battered by a massive earthquake recently.

State Finance Minister K N Balagopal said the money was granted to support the people of that country and the External Affairs Ministry had given permission to hand over the amount to Turkiye the other day.

The Rs 10 crore-financial assistance was announced in the state budget presented on February 8.

"The earthquake in Turkiye, which had shocked the consciousness of the world, claimed tens of thousands of lives and left lakhs of people destitute," the minister noted.

People from all over the world came forward to help the quake victims, he said and recalled the support the southern state had received from around the globe when it was devastated by natural calamities some years ago.

The earthquake had killed thousands of people and flattened several numbers of buildings in Turkiye and neighbouring Syria last month. Its epicentre was in Turkiye's southeastern province of Kahramanmaras and was felt as far away as Cairo (Egypt).

India had already dispatched humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to Turkiye.

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