In Syria and Turkey, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake kills more than 300

An earthquake of magnitude 7.8 hit southern Turkey and neighboring Syria on Monday, February 6, at least 237 dead and 639 injured were recorded in Syria by an initial report from the Ministry of Health. “Dozens of dead”, have also been identified by rescuers in rebel areas. In Turkey, at least 76 people have been killed in seven different provinces, according to the government’s disaster management agency (Afad).

According to the American seismological institute USGS, the earthquake took place at 4:17 a.m. local time (1:17 a.m. GMT), at a depth of about 17.9 kilometers. The epicenter is located in the district of Pazarcik, in the province of Kahramanmaras (south-east), about 60 km as the crow flies from the Syrian border.

This earthquake is the largest in Turkey since the earthquake of August 17, 1999, which caused the death of 17,000 people, including a thousand in Istanbul.

People still under the rubble

28 people were killed in Adiyaman province, its governor announced on Monday, citing around 100 collapsed buildings. At least 23 people have been killed and 420 others injured in Malatya province, its governor told public broadcaster TRT. The governor of Sanliurfa has reported 18 dead and 30 injured in his province. At least six others were killed in Diyarbakir province, its governor said.

“We hear voices here and there. We think maybe 200 people are under the rubble.”said a rescuer dispatched to a destroyed building in Diyarbakir, according to images broadcast on the NTV channel.

According to Afad, the earthquake that occurred overnight had a magnitude of 7.4 and a depth of 7 km. The tremors, felt across the southeast of the country, were also felt in Lebanon and Cyprus, according to AFP correspondents.

Buildings have been destroyed in many cities in the south-east of the country, according to images broadcast by the Turkish media, raising fears of a much heavier toll.

Call for international help

An AFP correspondent in Diyarbakir, a large city in the south-east of the country, saw a collapsed building, with rescuers hard at work trying to extricate people from the rubble. On Twitter, Turkish Internet users shared the identity and location of people trapped under the rubble in several cities in the south-east of the country.

Adana city mayor Zeydan Karalar said two 17-storey and 14-storey buildings were destroyed, according to TRT.

“All our teams are on alert. We have issued a level four alarm. It is a call, including for international aid.said Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on the Haberturk channel.

“Our teams are on alert to rescue survivors”also said the Syrian White Helmets, rescue workers engaged in rebel areas in Syria, on Twitter.

50 aftershocks were recorded in Turkey, according to Afad.

One of the most active seismic zones in the world

The governor of Gaziantep province called on residents to gather outside despite the cold, while the head of Diyanet, the Turkish public body responsible for supervising worship, called on Turks in need to find refuge in mosques.

Turkish rescuers and civil defense as well as Syrian firefighters were at work on Monday morning to try to extract possible victims from the rubble, according to local media.

Turkey is located on one of the most active seismic zones in the world. At the end of November, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck northwestern Turkey, injuring around 50 people and causing limited damage, according to the Turkish emergency services.

In January 2020, a 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck the provinces of Elazig and Malatya (East), killing more than 40 people. In October of the same year, a magnitude 7 earthquake in the Aegean Sea killed 114 people and injured more than 1,000 in Turkey.