Hundreds of dead from the most powerful earthquake in Syria and Turkey
2023.02.06 01:49
Hundreds of dead from the most powerful earthquake in Syria and Turkey
By Tiffany Smith
Budrigannews.com – On Monday, a major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 struck central Turkey and northwest Syria, causing the collapse of buildings across the snow-covered region and the deaths of approximately 200 people. The quake also sparked a search for survivors trapped in the rubble.
Cyprus and Lebanon also felt the quake, which occurred in the early darkness of a winter morning.
“I have never felt anything like it in the 40 years I’ve lived,” said Erdem, who declined to provide his name but lives in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, near the epicenter of the quake.
“We were shaken very strongly, at least three times, like a baby in a crib.”
Authorities in Turkey declared a “level 4 alarm” that calls for international assistance and dispatched rescue teams and supply aircraft to the affected area, reporting 76 deaths and 440 injuries.
According to a statement from his office, President Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone with the governors of eight of the affected provinces to learn more about the situation and the efforts being made to rescue people.
The majority of the deaths and injuries were reported in the provinces of Hama, Aleppo, and Latakia, where numerous buildings had been destroyed, according to the state media in Syria.
A member of the rescue group White Helmets said in a video posted on Twitter, “The situation is very tragic, tens of buildings have collapsed in the city of Salqin,” referring to a town about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Turkish border.
The rescuer in the video said that homes had been “totally destroyed” and showed a rubble-strewn street.
During Syria’s nearly 12-year civil war, numerous buildings in the region had already been damaged.
Witnesses reported that residents of Damascus, Lebanon’s Beirut and Tripoli, and Lebanon’s Tripoli fled into the street and into their cars in case their buildings collapsed.
Erdem also stated that people in Gaziantep, Turkey, had fled their shaking homes and were too afraid to return.
Erdem stated over the phone, “Everyone is sitting in their cars or trying to drive to open spaces away from buildings.”
On Twitter, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan stated that the United States was “profoundly concerned” about the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria and was closely monitoring the situation.
He stated, “I have been in contact with officials in Turkey to relay that we stand ready to provide any and all necessary assistance.”
Seismic fault lines cross the region, making it susceptible to earthquakes.
Focus on rescue and search efforts A Reuters witness in Diyarbakir, 350 kilometers (216 miles) to the east, reported that at least 17 buildings collapsed and that the tremor lasted about a minute.
According to the authorities, 34 structures collapsed in Osmaniye and 16 in Sanliurfa.
In the still-dark city of Kahramanmaras, broadcasters TRT and Haberturk showed footage of people moving stretchers, searching through building rubble, and looking for survivors.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters, “Our primary job is to carry out the search and rescue work, and to do that, all our teams are on alert.”
The EMSC monitoring service stated that it was evaluating the possibility of a tsunami, while the German Research Centre for Geosciences stated that the quake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles).
Following the initial tremor, the U.S. Geological Survey reported a series of additional earthquakes with a magnitude of 7.8. There was a 6.7-magnitude quake in Gaziantep and a 5.6-magnitude quake in the Nurdag neighborhood of the city.
Near Kahramanmaras and the larger city of Gaziantep, close to the Syrian border, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority of Turkey estimated the magnitude to be 7.4.
Additionally, tremors were felt in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, which is located 460 kilometers (286 miles) northwest of the epicenter. In Cyprus, however, no damage was reported by police.
“We were concerned when the earthquake struck. “There is serious widespread damage,” the head of the Turkish Red Crescent relief organization, Kerem Kinik, told Haberturk, urging blood donations.
Turkey is one of the nations most susceptible to earthquakes worldwide. In 1999, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck Izmit, a city southeast of Istanbul, killing more than 17,000 people. Over 500 people were killed in a 2011 earthquake in the eastern city of Van.
