a major earthquake strikes Turkey and Syria; Hundreds dead, many trapped

An earthquake hits central Turkey in northwestern Syria, the death toll is 284 in Turkey; No less than 237 in Syria – Rescue officials begin searching for untold numbers trapped under the rubble

Diyarbakir/Ankara, Turkey (Reuters) – More than 500 people were killed and thousands injured on Monday after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit central Turkey and northwest Syria, collapsing buildings and prompting a search for survivors under the rubble.

The quake, which struck in the early dark of a winter’s day, was felt by residents of Cyprus and Lebanon.

A woman with a broken arm and cuts on her face said, speaking in an ambulance near the wreckage of the seven-storey building in which she lived in Diyarbakir, in southeastern Turkey.

“I’ve never felt anything like this in the 40 years I’ve lived,” said Erdem, a resident of the Turkish city of Gaziantep, near the epicenter of the earthquake, who declined to give his surname.

“We were shaken at least three times very hard.”

Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said that 284 people were killed and 2,323 injured, while the authorities rushed rescue teams and provided aircraft to the affected area, while announcing a “level four alert” calling for international assistance.

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In Syria, already ravaged by more than 11 years of civil war, a government health official said more than 237 people have been killed and about 600 injured, mostly in the provinces of Hama, Aleppo and Latakia, where many buildings have collapsed.

And in rebel-held northwest Syria, the rescue service said dozens were killed.

Turkish broadcaster RTR showed rescue workers in Osmaniye province using a blanket to remove an injured man from a collapsed four-storey building and place him in an ambulance. She added that he was the fifth to be pulled from the rubble.

Footage broadcast by CNNTurk showed that the historic Gaziantep Citadel was severely destroyed.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office said in a statement that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by telephone with governors of eight affected provinces to gather information on the situation and rescue efforts.

“A big noise was heard and the building next to us collapsed when the earthquake occurred,” said a 30-year-old in Diyarbakir.

“I rushed outside. There was screaming everywhere. I started pulling rocks with my hands. We pulled out the wounded with my friends, but the screaming didn’t stop. Then (rescue) teams came.”

“totally devastated”

Health director Ziyad Haj Taha told Reuters that the wounded were “arriving in waves” in the Syrian city of Aleppo, which was badly damaged during the war.

Syrian state television showed footage of rescue teams searching for survivors in heavy rain and frost.

[1/6] People search through the rubble following the earthquake that struck Diyarbakir, Turkey, February 6, 2023. REUTERS/Sirtak Kayar

Rescue workers in rebel-held areas of Syria reported extensive damage.

In the border town of Azaz – an area controlled by opposition forces – a rescue worker carried a young boy out of a damaged building. A Reuters witness said another group carried a body wrapped in a white sheet while a crane pulled concrete slabs. Read more

“Dozens of buildings collapsed in the city of Salqin,” a member of the White Helmets rescue organization said in a video posted on Twitter, referring to another town five kilometers from the Turkish border.

President Bashar al-Assad’s office said an emergency cabinet meeting was to review the damage and discuss next steps.

Eyewitnesses said that people in Damascus and in the Lebanese cities of Beirut and Tripoli took to the streets and got out of their cars to get away from their buildings in case they collapsed.

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White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Twitter that the United States was “extremely concerned” about the earthquake in Turkey and Syria and was watching events closely.

“I have been in contact with Turkish officials to advise us that we stand ready to provide any and all assistance required,” he said.

The US Geological Survey said the 7.8-magnitude quake occurred at a depth of 17.9 km. It reported a series of earthquakes with a magnitude of 6.7.

The region straddles seismic fault lines.

It was the deadliest quake in Turkey since 1999, when a quake of similar magnitude devastated Izmit and the densely populated eastern Sea of ​​Marmara near Istanbul, killing more than 17,000 people.

Monday’s earthquake lasted about a minute and windows were shattered, said a Reuters witness in Diyarbakir, 350 km (218 miles) to the east, where a security official said at least 17 buildings had collapsed.

Authorities said 16 buildings collapsed in Sanliurfa and 34 in Osmaniye.

TRT and Haberturk broadcasters showed footage of people picking out the wreckage of the building, moving stretchers and searching for survivors in the city of Kahramanmaras as it was still dark.

“Our primary task is to carry out search and rescue work and to do so, all our teams are on alert,” Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters.

An earthquake was also felt in the Turkish capital, Ankara, 460 km northwest of the epicenter, and in Cyprus, where no damage was reported by the police.

“The earthquake hit an area that we feared would happen. There is massive damage on a large scale,” Kerim Kinik, head of the Turkish Red Crescent relief agency, told Khabir Türk, making an appeal for blood donations.

Additional reporting by Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru, Maya Jubaili in Beirut, Kinda Makiya in Damascus, Jonathan Spicer and Darren Butler in Istanbul, and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington. Written by Jonathan Spicer, Robert Purcell, and Tom Perry; Edited by Clarence Fernandez

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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