Over 1300 dead as major earthquake strikes Turkey, Syria

PM Modi offers condolences

CITY REPORTER DESK,06-Feb; A major earthquake of magnitude 7.9 struck central Turkey and northwest Syria on Monday, killing over 1300 people as buildings collapsed across the snowy region, and triggering a search for survivors trapped in the rubble.

As the rescue operations have just begun and there are too many demolished structures, the death toll is expected to rise. Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management agency said at least 912 people were killed in seven Turkish provinces. The agency said 440 people were injured.

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

The death toll in government-held areas of Syria climbed to 237 with more than 630 injured, according to Syrian state media. At least 120 people were killed in rebel-held areas,

“The situation is very tragic, tens of buildings have collapsed in the city of Salqin,” a member of the White Helmets rescue organisation said in a video clip on Twitter, referring to a town about five kilometres from the Turkish border.

The rescuer on the clip, which showed a rubble-strewn street, said homes were “totally destroyed”.

Many buildings in the region had already suffered damage in fighting during Syria’s nearly 12-year-long civil war.

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 case they collapsed, witnesses said.

In Turkey’s Gaziantep, Erdem also said people had fled from their shaking homes and were too scared to return.

“Everybody is sitting in their cars or trying to drive to open spaces away from buildings,” Erdem said by telephone.

The United States was “profoundly concerned” about the quake in Turkey and Syria and was monitoring events closely, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Twitter.

“I have been in touch with Turkish officials to relay that we stand ready to provide any and all needed assistance,” he said.

The region straddles seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes.

The tremor lasted about a minute and shattered windows, according to a witness in Diyarbakir, 350km to the east, where a security official said at least 17 buildings collapsed.

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

The German Research Centre for Geosciences said the quake struck at a depth of 10km, while the EMSC monitoring service said it was assessing the risk of a tsunami.

The US Geological Survey reported a series of further earthquakes following the initial tremor, which it put at a magnitude of 7.8. There was a quake measuring 6.7 in Gaziantep and another of 5.6 in the city’s Nurdag area.

Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority put the magnitude of the quake at 7.4 near Kahramanmaras and the larger city of Gaziantep, close to the Syrian border.

Tremors were also felt in the Turkish capital of Ankara, 460km northwest of the epicentre, and in Cyprus, where police reported no damage.

“The earthquake struck in a region that we feared. There is serious widespread damage,” Kerem Kinik, the chief of the Turkish Red Crescent relief agency, told Haberturk, issuing an appeal for blood donations.

Turkey is among the most earthquake-prone countries in the world. More than 17,000 people were killed in 1999 when a 7.6-magnitude quake struck Izmit, a city southeast of Istanbul. In 2011, a quake in the eastern city of Van killed more than 500.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed grief over the loss of lives and damage of property due to earthquake in Turkey. In a tweet, Modi said, India stands in solidarity with the people of Turkey and is ready to offer all possible assistance to cope with this tragedy. (CNS)