Turkey Earthquake: Over 1,500 People Dead

 

People reported feeling tremors in Egypt, Lebanon and also Cyprus, while a tsunami warning was briefly issued by authorities in Italy.

Concerns grew for people trapped under the rubble as thousands of rescue workers jumped into action, searching through tangles of metal and giant piles of concrete for survivors who could be heard calling out from underneath the wreckage.

Terrifying videos and pictures from across the region showed the destruction caused by the quake. One clip from the border town of Azaz, Syria, showed a rescuer desperately running through a field of debris with an injured child in his arms, while another showed the total collapse of a building in Sanliurfa, Turkey.

Monday’s first quake was centred north of Gaziantep, Turkey, which is about 60 miles from the Syrian border and has a population of bout 2 million. The region is home to large numbers of Syrian refugees.

The US Geological Survey reported that it happened around 04:17 local time (0:117 GMT) and a depth of about 11 miles. A few minutes later, a powerful 6.7 aftershock shook, doing further damage. 40 aftershocks were felt, according to Turkey’s own agency.

Numerous fatalities were reported in seven Turkish regions, according to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Service.

Recep Erdogan, the president of Turkey, reported the dead toll had increased to 912 and that 5,000 more people had been injured at around 10:15 GMT. He also revised prior estimates.

Erdogan referred to it as the nation’s worst calamity since 1939. (when 33,000 people were killed in the Erzincan earthquake)

The earthquake on Monday caused 2,818 buildings to collapse, he continued.

‘Everyone is putting their heart and soul into efforts, although the winter season, cold weather and the earthquake happening during the night make things more difficult,’ he told reporters in a news conference at Turkey’s disaster coordination centre in Ankara. ‘We do not know how high the casualty numbers will go as efforts to lift the debris continue in several buildings in the earthquake zone,’ he said.

The volunteer civil defence organisation said the quake has ‘resulted in hundreds of injuries, dozens of deaths, and people being stranded in the winter cold’.

‘The toll may increase as many families are still trapped,’ the White Helmets, which operates in rebel-controlled areas of the war-torn country, said. ‘Our teams are on the ground [are] searching for survivors and removing the dead from the rubble.’

The death toll across the whole affected region is expected to climb as rescue teams work throughout Monday to find more people trapped under collapsed buildings.

It was unclear if more casualties had been caused by the second quake.

Earlier, Erdogan said that ‘search and rescue teams were immediately dispatched’ to the areas hit by the devastating quake.

‘We hope that we will get through this disaster together as soon as possible and with the least damage,’ he wrote on Twitter. He urged people not to enter damaged buildings due to the risks, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said.

‘Our priority is to bring out people trapped under ruined buildings and to transfer them to hospitals,’ he said.

At least 2,800 rescue teams have been deployed across Turkey, and the Turkish armed forces have set up an air corridor to enable search and rescue teams to reach the affected zones, the country’s defence ministry said on Monday.

‘We mobilised our planes to send medical teams, search and rescue teams and their vehicles to the earthquake zone,’ Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said in a statement.

The rescue operations in some sections of Turkey were, however, initially criticized.

Suzan Sahi of the opposition Republican People’s Party reportedly stated: “I am in the Iskenderun region,” according to the BBC’s Turkish Language service. The neighborhood is in critical condition. We lost more than 30 of our structures. It was destroyed, the former SSK hospital. We are in a dire predicament.

“This is what’s important. It has been a long time. Rescue efforts have not yet begun. There are no government representatives or the AFAD (the disaster and emergency agency). Transporting the bodies to the hospitals is almost impossible.

Tents and blankets couldn’t be distributed, for example. Our people are no more. From 4 am until 1 pm, nobody arrived.

‘It is not possible to give the number of dead and injured at the moment because so many buildings have been destroyed,’ Coskun said. ‘The damage is serious.’

Elsewhere, a famous mosque dating back to the 13th century partially collapsed in the province of Maltaya, where a 14-story building with 28 apartments also fell.

Other mosques around the region were being opened up as a shelter for people unable to return to damaged homes amid temperatures that were close to freezing.

The quake heavily damaged Gaziantep’s most famed landmark, its historic castle perched atop a hill in the centre of the city. Parts of the fortresses’ walls and watch towers were levelled and other parts were heavily damaged, images showed.

In other cities, anguished rescuers struggled to reach survivors trapped under the debris. ‘We hear voices here – and over there, too,’ one rescuer was overheard as saying on NTV television in front of a flattened building in the city of Diyarbakir.

200 individuals might be hiding beneath the rubble.

Several videos from the rescue operation scenarios were shared on social media. At least five people, including two children, were shown in one video being carried through a small opening in the rubble of a structure and via a “tunnel” that was still wide enough for people to pass through to reach the outside.

The 90-second clip didn’t reveal how many people were inside the house at the time of the building’s collapse, but it appeared the family had unintentionally ended up in a small area of the wreckage.

In the Turkish city of Adana, one resident said three buildings near his home collapsed. ‘I don’t have the strength anymore,’ one survivor could be heard calling out from beneath the rubble as rescue workers tried to reach him, said the resident, journalism student Muhammet Fatih Yavus.

Images from Diyarbakir showed hundreds of rescue workers and civilians forming lines across huge piles of wreckage, passing down pieces of concrete and household items as they worked to clear the debris in the search for survivors.

Any survivors they did find were strapped into stretchers and taken to ambulances.

Rescue teams called for silence as they tried to listen for survivors under the wreckage of an 11-storey building.

In Sanliurfa, at least 10 deaths have been confirmed, according to Gov. Salih Ayhan.

Several buildings tumbled down in the neighboring provinces of Malatya, Diyarbakir and Malatya. A hospital collapsed in the Mediterranean coastal city of Iskanderoun, but casualties were not immediately known, Turkey’s Vice President said.

‘Unfortunately, at the same time, we are also struggling with extremely severe weather conditions,’ Otkay told reporters. Nearly 2,800 search and rescue teams have been deployed in the disaster-stricken areas, he said.

One U.S.-based Turkish citizen, Eren Bali, tweeted footage showing collapsed buildings in his hometown of Malatya.

‘Southeast Turkey was hit by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that lasted 90 seconds,’ he said. ‘Over 100 buildings were reported to have collapsed in my home town alone (Malatya).’

Unverified images from Hatay appeared to show a family being dragged out of the rubble of a collapsed home, amid heavy snowfall.

The same Twitter user posted another clip showing a boy being rescued.

Another person shared what he said was footage from Gaziantep, showing burst water pipes flooding the streets.

People trying to leave the quake-stricken regions caused traffic jams, hampering efforts of emergency teams trying to reach the affected areas.

Authorities urged residents not to take to the roads.

In Syria, in Aleppo alone, 24 people had died and 100 were injured when 20 buildings collapsed in the province, the official news agency SANA had said, quoting an official in the province.

Even before the tragedy, buildings in Aleppo – Syria’s pre-war commercial hub – often collapsed due to the dilapidated infrastructure after more than a decade of war and devastating airstrikes, as well as little oversight to ensure safety of new construction projects, some built illegally.

SANA said the earthquake was felt from the western coast of Latakia to Damascus.

‘This earthquake is the strongest since the National Earthquake Centre was founded in 1995,’ Raed Ahmed, who heads the centre, told SANA.

Near the border town of Azaz found on the Syrian side, an AFP correspondent saw rescuers pull out survivors as well as five bodies out of the rubble of a three-story building that crumbled.

Additionally, deaths were reported in parts of northern Syria governed by pro-Turkish groups. Omar Alwan, the area’s medical response coordinator, told AFP reporters, “We have been working on recovering the deceased from under the rubble” in the regions of Azaz and Al-Bab.

In one of the devastated communities, rescue personnel and locals were sifting through mounds of twisted metal and concrete debris with flashlights.

People on the street called up to those within an apartment building that was dangerously tilting and partially fell.

President Erdogan reported that 45 governments had pledged to help Turkey and Syria and that other nations had quickly offered their assistance.

The UK is prepared, according to James Cleverly, the British Foreign Secretary.

Tragic death toll in the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, he tweeted. Our sympathies are with the survivors, and our condolences go out to the families of those who passed away. The United Kingdom is prepared to help.

My sympathies are with the people of Turkey and Syria this morning, especially with those first responders fighting so bravely to save those caught by the earthquake, said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, echoing his foreign secretary’s remarks. The UK is prepared to assist in any manner that we can.

Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden’s National Security Adviser, tweeted that the US President had instructed the federal government to prepare assistance from the United States.

‘The US is profoundly concerned by the reports of today’s destructive earthquake in Turkey and Syria,’ Sullivan said.

‘We stand ready to provide any and all needed assistance. President Biden has directed USAID and other federal government partners to assess US response options to help those most affected. We will continue to closely monitor the situation in coordination with the government of Turkey.’

The statement did not say whether the US would work directly with the Syrian government, against which the US currently has economic sanctions in place.

Samantha Power, the head of USAID, said they were looking at how best to assist.

‘Deeply concerned about the earthquake that just struck Turkiye & Syria,’ she tweeted. ‘It’s one of the most powerful to hit Turkiye in 100 yrs, and the human toll, including on already displaced Syrians, will be devastating.

‘@POTUS has directed @USAID to assess how we can help those impacted.’

India’s leader, Narendra Modi, also offered support.

‘Anguished by the loss of lives and damage of property due to the Earthquake in Turkey,’ he tweeted.

‘Condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon.

‘India stands in solidarity with the people of Turkey and is ready to offer all possible assistance to cope with this tragedy.’

He posted a similar message of support for Syria.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky also offered his war-torn country’s support.

‘Shocked by the news about the death and injury of hundreds of people as a result of the earthquake in Turkey,’ he tweeted on Monday morning.

‘We extend our condolences to the families of the victims and wish the injured a speedy recovery. We are in this moment close to the friendly Turkish people, ready to provide the necessary assistance.’

Josep Borrell, the European Union’s most senior diplomat, said that the 27-country bloc was ready to help the devastated countries.

‘Devastating earthquake rocked Türkiye and Syria this morning, claiming the lives of hundreds of people and injuring many more,’ he wrote on Twitter.

‘Our thoughts are with the people of Türkiye and Syria. The EU is ready to help.’

It was later announced that the European Union had mobilised 10 search and rescue teams. ‘Teams from the Netherlands and Romania are already on their way,’ with the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre overseeing their deployment, the bloc’s crisis management commissioner Janez Lenarcic tweeted.

He said that the bloc’s Civil Protection Mechanism had been activated to respond to the quake, which hit Turkey and Syria, causing deaths and destruction in both countries. His office said that Turkey had requested EU assistance.

The Netherlands, Israel, Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, Poland, Taiwan, Russia, China and even Iran were among the dozens of other counties that offer their assistance.

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, expressed his condolences to both Turkey and Syria, and the emergency ministry of Russia indicated that two IL-76 planes carrying 100 rescuers were prepared to go to Turkey if necessary.

Russia has a sizable military presence in Syria and is a strong ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Putin also gets along well with Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan. Despite being a NATO member, Turkey has attempted to mediate the crisis between Russia and Ukraine.

In the meantime, a representative for the China International Development Cooperation Agency said that China has sent its condolences and voiced worry for the loss of life and property and that it is in contact with both Turkey and Syria.

On the ground in Syria, Fared Al Mahlool, a local journalist based in the country, tweeted video showing collapsed houses and people scrabbling through the rubble.

‘Here in the city of Salqin in rural Idlib, Syria,’ he wrote. ‘We hit a violent earthquake and destroyed everything. Buildings destroyed and people under rubble.’

In northwest Syria, authorities in the region as ‘disastrous’ adding that entire buildings have collapsed and people are trapped under the rubble.

Four million Syrians who had been forced to leave other areas of the nation due to the protracted civil war were living in opposition-held areas when the earthquake struck.

Many of them have poor living circumstances and minimal access to healthcare.

A doctor in the village, Muheeb Qaddour, told The Associated Press over the phone that at least 11 people were murdered in the Syrian hamlet of Atmeh and that many more were buried in the wreckage.

In the northwest, which is controlled by the rebels, Qaddour stated, “We think that the deaths are in the hundreds.”

There is a lot of strain on us.

People were instructed to leave buildings and congregate in open spaces by the civil defense.

According to Amjad Rass, president of the Syrian American Medical Society, emergency facilities were overflowing with injured people.

Syria’s state media reported that some buildings collapsed in the northern city of Aleppo and the central city of Hama.

Buildings in Damascus trembled, and many people fled into the streets out of panic.

Samer, a local of the Syrian city, claimed that paintings had fallen from the walls of the residence.

I was scared when I woke up. We are all dressed and waiting at the entrance right now.

The opposition-held enclave in northwest Syria, which is centered on the province of Idlib, has been under constant Russian and government airstrikes for years and now faces fresh difficulties as a result of the earthquake.

Everything from food to medical supplies comes to the region from Turkey, which is nearby.

The Syrian Civil Defence, an opposition group, called the situation there “disastrous,” noting that entire structures had collapsed and that people were trapped beneath the debris.

The bodies of numerous dead children, wrapped in blankets, were transported to a hospital in the small Syrian town of Azmarin near the Turkish border, which is controlled by rebels.

The earthquake in Lebanon shocked people out of their sleep and shook the buildings for roughly 40 seconds. Many Beirut residents walked out of their homes, drove their cars away from the buildings, or took to the streets.

A snowfall that is currently affecting the Middle East is scheduled to last until Thursday when the earthquake struck.

The head of the Turkish Red Cross encouraged people to leave damaged homes as they announced that they were gathering resources for the area after learning of catastrophic damage and collapsed buildings.

Turkey is in one of the world’s most active earthquake zones, sitting in a fault line.

The Turkish region of Duzce suffered a 7.4-magnitude earthquake in 1999 – the worst to hit Turkey in decades.

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That quake killed more than 17,000 people, including about 1,000 in Istanbul.

Experts have long warned a large quake could devastate Istanbul, which has allowed widespread building without safety precautions.

A magnitude-6.8 quake hit Elazig in January 2020, killing more than 40 people.

And in October that year, a magnitude-7.0 quake hit Turkey’s Aegean coast, killing 114 people and wounding more than 1,000.

The last 7.8-magnitude tremor shook Turkey in 1939, when 33,000 died in the eastern province of Erzincan.