Rescuers seek for victims of a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Diyarbakir, Turkey, on this video grab from AFP TV taken Feb. 6, 2023.
Mahmut Bozarslan | AFP | Getty Images
A strong 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southeast Turkey and Syria early Monday, toppling buildings and sending panicked residents pouring outside in a chilly winter night. Not less than 31 were killed, and the toll was expected to rise.
Rescue employees and residents using flashlights were looking through piles of tangled metal and concrete rubble in one in every of the stricken cities. People on the road shouted as much as others inside a partially toppled apartment constructing, leaning dangerously.
The quake, felt as distant as Cairo, was centered north of the town of Gaziantep in an about 90 kilometers (60 miles) from the Syrian border. Together with several cities, the world is home to home to tens of millions of Syrian refugees who fled their country’s long-running civil war. Turkey, which borders Syria to the north, hosts the biggest variety of Syrian refugees on this planet.
On the Syrian side of the border, the quake smashed opposition-held regions which might be filled with several million displaced Syrians with a decrepit health care system after years of war. Not less than 11 were killed in a single town, Atmed, and plenty of more were buried within the rubble, a health care provider within the town, Muheeb Qaddour, told The Associated Press by telephone.
“We fear that the deaths are within the a whole bunch,” Qaddour said, referring to the rebel-held northwest. “We’re under extreme pressure.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Twitter that “search and rescue teams were immediately dispatched” to the areas hit by the quake.
“We hope that we’ll get through this disaster together as soon as possible and with the least damage,” he wrote.
There have been at the least 6 aftershocks, and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu urged people to not enter damaged buildings because of the risks.
“Our priority is to bring out people trapped under ruined buildings and to transfer them to hospitals,” he said.
Tallies from various officials put the toll at at the least 18 dead in Turkey and 13 in Syria. Not less than 130 buildings tumbled down in Turkey’s Malatya province, Gov. Hulusi Sahin said.
In northwest Syria, the opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense described the situation within the rebel-held region as “disastrous” adding that entire buildings have collapsed and persons are trapped under the rubble. The civil defense urged people to evacuate buildings to assemble in open areas. Emergency rooms were filled with injured, said Rass.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 33 kilometers (20 miles) from Gaziantep, a serious city and provincial capital. It was centered 18 kilometers (11 miles) deep, and a robust 6.7 aftershock rumbled about 10 minutes later.
Syria’s state media reported that some buildings collapsed within the northern city of Aleppo and the central city of Hama.
In Damascus, buildings shook and plenty of people went all the way 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 of their cars away from buildings.
The earthquake got here because the Middle East is experiencing a snowstorm that is predicted to proceed until Thursday.
Turkey sits on top of major fault lines and is continuously shaken by earthquakes.
Some 18,000 were killed in powerful earthquakes that hit northwest Turkey in 1999.
