More than 1,400 people were killed and thousands injured by a devastating 7.8-magnitude quake that struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria on Monday, tremors being felt as far away as Greenland.
In Turkey, where the epicenter was registered, at least 912 people died and nearly 5,400 were injured, according to the latest balance reported by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Some 2,818 buildings collapsed with the tremor, which suggests a much more serious balance.
In neighboring Syria, the tremor caused at least 560 deaths: the official agency SANA, which quotes the Ministry of Health, reported at least 339 people dead and 1,089 injured in areas under government control in this country at war. The White Helmets, which operate in the rebel-held parts of Syria, said there were at least 221 dead and 419 wounded in those sectors.
The tremor was felt at 04:17 (01:17 GMT) and occurred at a depth of 17.9 kilometers, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The epicenter was located in the district of Pazarcik, in the province of Kahramanmaras, in the southeast of Turkey, about 60 km from the Syrian border.
A new earthquake of magnitude 7.5 hit the area at 1:24 PM (10:24 GMT), four kilometers southeast of the town of Ekinozu, according to the USGS. There were also around fifty aftershocks, according to Ankara.
Tremors from the quake were felt as far as Greenland, according to the Danish Geological Institute.
The balance is very likely to worsen quickly, taking into account the number of buildings collapsed in the most affected cities, such as Adana, Gaziantep, Sanliurfa and Diayarbakir, in southeastern Turkey.
Due to the time the earthquake occurred, at dawn, most people were sleeping at home.
“My sister and her three children are under the rubble. Also her husband, her father-in-law and her mother-in-law. Seven members of our family are under the rubble,” Muhittin Orakci told AFP, as he witnessed the rescue operations in front of a building. in ruins in Diyarbakir.
“His sister is still under the rubble,” said a woman pointing to another heartbroken victim in the same town.
Blocked airports
For security reasons, the gas was cut off throughout the area, due to aftershocks and fears of explosions.
Iraqi Kurdistan reported that it will suspend crude oil exports through Turkey as a precaution.
This earthquake is the most important in Turkey since the earthquake of August 17, 1999, which caused 17,000 deaths, a thousand of them in Istanbul.
According to Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay, at least three of the airports in the affected area, Hatay, Maras and Gaziantep, have been closed to traffic.
The snow and storms that hit the region prevented traffic at other airports, including Diyarbakir’s, AFP found.
“We hear voices here and there. We think maybe 200 people are in the rubble,” a rescue worker in Diyarbakir said, according to a broadcast on NTV.
Some images on Turkish television and social media showed frightened people in pajamas wandering through the snow as they watched rescuers search through the rubble of their homes.
Meanwhile, Syrian state television reported the collapse of a building near Latakia, on the country’s west coast.
Pro-government media reported that several buildings partially collapsed in Hama, central Syria, where firefighters and rescuers were trying to pull a survivor from the wreckage.
Raed Ahmed, head of Syria’s National Seismic Monitoring Center, told official radio that this was “historically the biggest earthquake on record.”
The tremor triggered scenes of panic. Many inhabitants took to the streets despite the torrential rain.
The White Helmets called the situation “catastrophic” and called on international humanitarian organizations to “intervene quickly” to help the local population.
International aid
The Turkish president, whose handling of this tragedy will weigh heavily in the hotly contested May 14 elections, called for national unity.
“We hope to get out of this catastrophe together as quickly as possible and with as little damage as possible,” he tweeted.
The European Union (EU) and many of its member countries announced that they were sending aid and rescue teams.
So did the United States, Israel, India and Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin conveyed his condolences to the Turkish and Syrian leaders and offered to “provide the necessary help” from Russia in the aftermath of this tragedy.
Azerbaijan, a country close to Turkey, announced the immediate dispatch of 370 rescuers, according to the official Turkish news agency.
Turkey is located in one of the most active seismic zones in the world.
Experts have long warned that a major quake could devastate Istanbul, which has allowed widespread construction without precautions.
A 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Elazig in January 2020, killing more than 40 people.
And in October of that same year, another of magnitude 7.0 shook the Aegean Sea, causing 114 deaths and more than 1,000 injuries.