Major earthquake hits Turkey, Syria; hundreds dead, many trapped
Send a link to a friend
[February 06, 2023]
By Mert Ozkan, Ece Toksabay and Kinda Makieh
ADANA, Turkey/DAMASCUS (Reuters) -More than 1,400 people were killed and
thousands injured on Monday when a huge earthquake struck central Turkey
and northwest Syria, pulversing apartment blocks and heaping more
destruction on Syrian cities already devastated by years of war.
The magnitude 7.8 quake, which hit in the early darkness of a winter
morning, was the worst to strike Turkey this century. It was also felt
in Cyprus and Lebanon. It was followed in the early afternoon by another
large quake, magnitude 7.7.
It was not immediately clear how much damage had been done by the second
quake, also felt across the region as rescue workers were struggling to
pull casualties from rubble in bitter weather.
"We were shaken like a cradle. There were nine of us at home. Two sons
of mine are still in the rubble, I'm waiting for them," said a woman
with a broken arm and injuries to her face, speaking in an ambulance
near the wreckage of a seven-storey block where she had lived in
Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said 912 people were killed, 5,383
injured, and 2,818 buildings had collapsed in Turkey.
Erdogan said he could not predict how much the death toll would rise as
search and rescue efforts continued.
"Everyone is putting their heart and soul into efforts although winter
season, cold weather and the earthquake happening during the night makes
things more difficult," he said.
Live footage from Turkish state broadcaster TRT showed a building
collapse in the southern province of Adana after the second quake. It
was not immediately clear if the building was evacuated.
In Syria, already wrecked by more than 11 years of civil war, the health
ministry said more than 326 people had been killed and 1,042 injured. In
the Syrian rebel-held northwest, rescuers said 221 people had died.
In Diyarbakir, Reuters journalists saw dozens of rescue workers
searching through a mound of debris, all that was left of a big
building, hauling off bits of wreckage as they looked for survivors.
Occasionally they raised their hands and called for quiet, listening for
sounds of life.
Men carried a girl wrapped in blankets from a collapsed building in the
city.
"We woke up to a big noise and severe shaking. There were two
aftershocks right after that," said Meryem, 29, from the southeastern
Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, near the epicentre.
"I was so scared, thought it will never stop. I took some things for my
one-year old son and left the building."
Footage circulated on Twitter showed two neighbouring buildings
collapsing one after the other in Syria's Aleppo, filling the street
with billowing dust. Two residents of the city, which has been heavily
damaged in the war, said the buildings had fallen in the hours after the
quake.
'LIKE THE APOCALYPSE'
In the Syrian rebel-held town of Jandaris in Aleppo province, a mound of
concrete, steel rods and bundles of clothes lay where a multi-storey
building once stood.
"There were 12 families under there. Not a single one came out. Not
one," said a thin young man, his eyes wide open in shock and his hand
bandaged.
[to top of second column]
|
People gather as rescuers search for
survivors under the rubble, following an earthquake, in rebel-held
town of Jandaris, Syria February 6, 2023. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Raed Fares of the Syrian White Helmets, a rescue service in
rebel-held territory known for pulling people from the ruins of
buildings destroyed by air strikes, said they were in "a race
against time to save the lives of those under the rubble".
Abdul Salam al Mahmoud, a Syrian in the town of Atareb, said it felt
"like the apocalypse".
Syrian state television showed footage of rescue teams searching for
survivors in heavy rain and sleet. President Bashar al-Assad held an
emergency cabinet meeting to review the damage and discuss the next
steps, his office said.
People in Damascus and in the Lebanese cities of Beirut and Tripoli
ran into the street and took to their cars to get away from their
buildings in fear of collapses, witnesses said.
Footage on broadcaster CNNTurk showed the historic Gaziantep Castle
was severely damaged.
In the Turkish city of Malatya, a rescue worker crawled into a
collapsed building, trying to identify a survivor trapped under the
wreckage, in footage released by Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency
Management Authority (AFAD).
"What colour are you wearing? Are you wearing pink? Please take care
of yourself for the moment, I cannot see anything else," the rescue
worker could be heard saying.
WORST QUAKE SINCE 1999
Erdogan said 45 countries had offered to help the search and rescue
efforts.
The United States was "profoundly concerned" about the quake and was
monitoring events closely, White House national security adviser
Jake Sullivan said on Twitter. "We stand ready to provide any and
all needed assistance," he said.
The U.S. Geological Survey said quake struck at a depth of 17.9 km.
It reported a series of earthquakes, one of 6.7 magnitude.
The region straddles seismic fault lines.
“The combination of large magnitude and shallow depth made this
earthquake extremely destructive," Mohammad Kashani, Associate
Professor of Structural and Earthquake Engineering at the University
of Southampton, said.
It was Turkey's most severe quake since 1999, when one of similar
magnitude devastated Izmit and the heavily populated eastern Marmara
Sea region near Istanbul, killing more than 17,000.
Tremors were felt in the Turkish capital of Ankara, 460 km (286
miles) northwest of the epicentre, and in Cyprus, where police
reported no damage.
(Additional reporting by Umit Ozdal in Diyarbakir, Ezgi Erkoyun in
Istanbul and Nevzat Devranoglu in Ankara, Maya Gebeily in Beirut,
Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Jonathan Spicer and Daren Butler in
Istanbul, Dominic Evans and Josephine Mason in London; Writing by
Jonathan Spicer, Robert Birsel, Tom Perry; Editing by Clarence
Fernandez and Angus MacSwan)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|