Ankara (Turkey): A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked southeastern Turkey and northern Syria early Monday, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing more than 2,300 people. Hundreds were still believed to be trapped under rubble, and the toll was expected to rise as rescue workers searched mounds of wreckage in cities and towns across the area.
Associated Press in its latest update reported that the death toll from Monday’s earthquakes in Turkey and Syria has now climbed to over 2,300 people. At least 1,498 people were killed across 10 provinces of Turkey, with another 7,600 injured, according to the country’s disaster management agency.
The death toll in government-held areas of Syria rose to more than 430 people, with 1,280 injured, according to data from the health ministry. In the country’s north-west where the government is not in control, groups that operate there said the death toll was at least 380, with many hundreds injured. The number is expected to continue to rise rapidly, with many people believed to be trapped under rubble in collapsed buildings.
On both sides of the border, residents jolted out of sleep by the pre-dawn quake rushed outside on a cold, rainy and snowy winter night, as buildings were flattened and strong aftershocks continued. Rescue workers and residents in multiple cities searched for survivors, working through tangles of metal and giant piles of concrete.
In the Turkish city of Adana, one resident said three buildings near his home collapsed. “I don’t have the strength anymore,” one survivor could be heard calling out from beneath the rubble as rescue workers tried to reach him, said the resident, journalism student Muhammet Fatih Yavus. Farther east in Diyarbakir, cranes and rescue teams rushed people on stretchers out of a mountain of pancaked concrete floors that was once an apartment building.
Social media was full of dramatic videos of multi-storey buildings collapsing like a house of cards. Visuals showing an injured child being pulled out of massive rubble were also shared on Twitter.
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In #Sanliurfa the moment a building collapsed recorded by mobile phone hours after 7.8 #earthquake hits Turkey. #deprem pic.twitter.com/YDc8DH9lbn
— JournoTurk (@journoturk) February 6, 2023 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
">In #Sanliurfa the moment a building collapsed recorded by mobile phone hours after 7.8 #earthquake hits Turkey. #deprem pic.twitter.com/YDc8DH9lbn
— JournoTurk (@journoturk) February 6, 2023In #Sanliurfa the moment a building collapsed recorded by mobile phone hours after 7.8 #earthquake hits Turkey. #deprem pic.twitter.com/YDc8DH9lbn
— JournoTurk (@journoturk) February 6, 2023
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🚨 BREAKING NEWS
— Eren ☭🇹🇷 (@Eren50855570) February 6, 2023 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
IT IS ANNOUNCED THAT A TOTAL OF 1710 BUILDINGS HAVE BEEN DESTROYED DUE TO THE EARTHQUAKE IN TURKEY. There are aftershocks or buildings that have been damaged and subsequently demolished#Turkey #kahramanmaras #malatya #deprem #earthquakepic.twitter.com/UzET9pMNSa
">🚨 BREAKING NEWS
— Eren ☭🇹🇷 (@Eren50855570) February 6, 2023
IT IS ANNOUNCED THAT A TOTAL OF 1710 BUILDINGS HAVE BEEN DESTROYED DUE TO THE EARTHQUAKE IN TURKEY. There are aftershocks or buildings that have been damaged and subsequently demolished#Turkey #kahramanmaras #malatya #deprem #earthquakepic.twitter.com/UzET9pMNSa🚨 BREAKING NEWS
— Eren ☭🇹🇷 (@Eren50855570) February 6, 2023
IT IS ANNOUNCED THAT A TOTAL OF 1710 BUILDINGS HAVE BEEN DESTROYED DUE TO THE EARTHQUAKE IN TURKEY. There are aftershocks or buildings that have been damaged and subsequently demolished#Turkey #kahramanmaras #malatya #deprem #earthquakepic.twitter.com/UzET9pMNSa
Dr Haluk Özener, director at the Kandilli observatory and earthquake research institute was quoted by BBC as saying: "We are facing the biggest earthquake we have seen in 24 years in this region. So far, 100 aftershocks have occurred. About 53 of them are over 4 [on the Richter scale]. Seven of them became over 5. We can say that these earthquakes will continue in the coming days."
Also read: People look through rubble and dust for trapped survivors of Earthquake in Turkey, Syria
The quake, felt as far away as Cairo, was centered north of Gaziantep, a Turkish provincial capital. It struck a region that has been shaped on both sides of the border by more than a decade of civil war in Syria. On the Syrian side, the swath affected is divided between government-held territory and the country’s last opposition-held enclave, which is surrounded by Russian-backed government forces. Turkey, meanwhile, is home to millions of refugees from that conflict.
The opposition-held regions in Syria are packed with some 4 million people displaced from other parts of the country by the fighting. Many of them live in buildings that are already wrecked from past bombardments. Hundreds of families remained trapped in rubble, the opposition emergency organization, called the White Helmets, said in a statement. Strained health facilities and hospitals were quickly filled with wounded, rescue workers said.
“We fear that the deaths are in the hundreds,” Muheeb Qaddour, a doctor, said by phone from the town of Atmeh. Turkey sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes. Some 18,000 were killed in powerful earthquakes that hit northwest Turkey in 1999. The U.S. Geological Survey measured Monday's quake at 7.8. At least 20 aftershocks followed, some hours later during daylight, the strongest measuring 6.6, Turkish authorities said.
Also read: Lookback at 10 major earthquakes that rocked the world
Buildings were reported collapsed in a wide area extending from Syria’s cities of Aleppo and Hama to Turkey’s Diyarbakir, more than 330 kilometers (200 miles) to the northeast. Nearly 900 buildings were destroyed in Turkey’s Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras provinces, said Vice President Fuat Oktay. A hospital collapsed in the Mediterranean coastal city of Iskanderoun, but casualties were not immediately known, he said.
“Unfortunately, at the same time, we are also struggling with extremely severe weather conditions,” Oktay told reporters. Nearly 2,800 search and rescue teams have been deployed in the disaster-stricken areas, he said. “We hope that we will get through this disaster together as soon as possible and with the least damage,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote on Twitter.
Countries from Taiwan to Russia to Germany offered to send help, whether medical supplies, search teams or money. In Turkey, people trying to leave the quake-stricken regions caused traffic jams, hampering efforts of emergency teams trying to reach the affected areas. Authorities urged residents not to take to the roads. Mosques around the region were being opened up as a shelter for people unable to return to damaged homes amid temperatures that hovered around freezing.
The quake heavily damaged Gaziantep’s most famed landmark, its historic castle perched atop a hill in the center of the city. Parts of the fortresses’ walls and watch towers were leveled and other parts heavily damaged, images from the city showed.
In Diyarbakir, hundreds of rescue workers and civilians formed lines across a mountain of wreckage, passing down broken concrete pieces, household belongings and other debris as they searched for trapped survivors while excavators dug through the rubble below. Survivors were strapped to stretchers and carefully handed down to a street where they were put in an ambulance.
Also read: Second massive earthquake hits Turkey, Syria; 'largest disaster since 1939', says Erdogan
In northwest Syria, the quake added new woes to the opposition-held enclave centered on the province of Idlib, which has been under siege for years, with frequent Russian and government airstrikes. The territory depends on a flow of aid from nearby Turkey for everything from food to medical supplies.
The opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense described the situation there as “disastrous,” adding that entire buildings have collapsed and people are trapped under the rubble. In the small Syrian rebel-held town of Azmarin in the mountains by the Turkish border, the bodies of several dead children, wrapped in blankets, were brought to a hospital.
The USGS said the quake was centered about 33 kilometers (20 miles) from Gaziantep. It was 18 kilometers (11 miles) deep. At least 284 people were killed in 10 Turkish provinces, with more than 2,000 injured, according to Turkey's vice president. The death toll in government-held areas of Syria climbed to 239 people, with some 600 injured, according to state media. In rebel-held areas, at least 147 people were killed, according to the White Helmets, though another group, medical organization SAMS, put the toll at 106; both said hundreds were hurt.
In Damascus, buildings shook and many people went down to the streets in fear. The quake jolted residents in Lebanon from beds, shaking buildings for about 40 seconds. Many residents of Beirut left their homes and took to the streets or drove in their cars away from buildings, terrorized by memories of the 2020 port explosion that wrecked a large portion of the city.
Huseyin Yayman, a legislator from Turkey's Hatay province, said several of his family members were trapped under the rubble of their collapsed homes. “There are so many other people who are also trapped,” he told HaberTurk television by telephone. “There are so many buildings that have been damaged. People are on the streets. It’s raining, it’s winter.” (With AP inputs)
