The death toll from the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria rises

People and emergency teams rescue a person on a stretcher from a collapsed building in Adana, Turkey, on Monday, February 6, 2023. Elifaysenurbay/AP .

Switch caption Elifaysenurbay / AP

People and emergency teams rescue a person on a stretcher from a collapsed building in Adana, Turkey, on Monday, February 6, 2023.

Elifaysenurbay/AP

BEIRUT – Search and rescue efforts were underway as the death toll rose from the powerful earthquake that struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria early Monday. The earthquake and its aftershocks have created a new humanitarian crisis in a region already shaken by more than a decade of civil war in Syria.

The Associated Press reported that more than 1,300 people were killed and hundreds more injured in Turkey and Syria by the quake. Hundreds of buildings collapsed in cities across the border region.

The USGS said the epicenter of the 7.8-magnitude quake was 33 kilometers (20 miles) from Gaziantep. It was centered at a depth of 18 kilometers (11 miles). An earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale was felt by residents in Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Iraq and Egypt.

At least 284 people have been killed in seven Turkish provinces, the Associated Press reported, citing Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Agency. The agency said 440 people were injured. The Associated Press, citing Syrian state media, reported that the death toll in government-held areas of Syria had risen to 237, with more than 630 injured. At least 120 people have been killed in rebel-held areas, according to the White Helmets.

In a tweet, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed his “full solidarity with our ally Turkey in the aftermath of this terrible earthquake… NATO allies are now rallying in support.”

Pictures spread on social media from southern Turkey and northeastern Syria showed terrified scenes of families running in the rain or snow amid the rubble of collapsed buildings. In Lebanon, the earthquake was strong enough to make entire buildings sway.

A USGS map shows where the earthquake occurred. USGS .

USGS caption switch

A USGS map shows where the earthquake occurred.

USGS

In northeastern Syria, the earthquake caused many buildings to collapse. Footage captured by local journalists showed families running through the rain and darkness in panic amid the wreckage of destroyed homes.

“The reality is that the situation is catastrophic,” Raed Saleh, head of the White Helmets civil defense group operating in northern Syria, told NPR. He said cities and villages across northern Syria were damaged. “In all these areas, buildings have fallen to the ground and teams are working on them. And all these buildings have people under the rubble. The hospitals are all completely full. The situation is literally tragic.”

“We cannot estimate the damage or know the number of dead,” he said. He said he saw three collapsed buildings and “families under the rubble” as he made his way to the group’s operating room. Rescue teams help them coordinate the broader search and rescue mission. “I am sending out calls for people to stay out of their homes on the streets because of the damage. It may not be safe for them to stay at home because these buildings may collapse. But there is a storm going on with rain and snow.”

Hamid Qatiani, a White Helmets rescue worker, told NPR that “dozens of families” are trapped under collapsed buildings. He listed the number of people known to have died in different towns and villages. In the city of Sarmada, there were seven deaths, and in Maarat Misrin, two people, and in Darkush, three deaths, including a child, and in Drees, three children were killed in villages in the northern countryside of Aleppo, and in the countryside of Idlib as well. Reports are coming in from everywhere because the situation is very bad.”

The earthquake in northern Syria has devastated parts of the country already devastated by more than a decade of civil war. In Idlib and Aleppo governorates, basic infrastructure has been severely damaged by the war. The region is also home to millions of Syrians who have fled fighting in other parts of the country. Many live in refugee camps or basic tent settlements set up among the olive groves that stretch along the border with Turkey.

“So far our hospitals in northwest Syria have received 91 dead and treated more than 500 seriously injured victims of the earthquake,” said the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM), an organization providing health care in rebel-held areas in northwest Syria. Four of our hospitals were damaged and evacuated, and the remaining hospitals are overcrowded.

People search through the rubble of a collapsed building in the town of Azmarin in northern Syria’s Idlib province, Monday, February 6, 2023. Ghaith al-Sayed/Associated Press.

. Ghaith al-Sayed/Associated Press

Citizens search among the wreckage of a collapsed building in the town of Azmarin, Idlib Governorate, northern Syria, Monday, February 6, 2023.

Ghaith Al-Sayed/AFP

Juma al-Qassim, a Syrian living across the border in the Turkish town of Gaziantep, works for the Bahr Organization, a charitable foundation operating in Syria and Iraq.

He told NPR, “According to our team in Syria, there are many casualties and damage to buildings. Several deaths have been reported.” “This is the last thing people need in Syria. There is crisis after crisis. People are already exhausted.”

Of the 4.6 million people in northwest Syria, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says, about 4.1 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. More than three million people in the region suffer from food insecurity.

Area hospitals have been badly damaged in the conflict. Idlib is outside government-controlled areas in Syria. Its hospitals have been repeatedly bombed by the air force of the Syrian regime or its ally Russia. Airstrikes were so frequent that doctors and aid organizations set up underground medical facilities in an attempt to shelter them from the attacks.

NPR’s Emma Bowman and Ayanna Archie contributed reporting.

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