Powerful 7.8 magnitude quake kills at least 100, knocks down buildings in Turkey, Syria - 10 points
2 min read . Updated: 06 Feb 2023, 10:23 AM IST
PremiumTurkey earthquake today: A 7.8 magnitude quake knocked down multiple buildings in southeast Turkey and Syria early Monday. At least a hundred people have been killed and many others are feared trapped under rubble.
At least 100 people were killed while dozens of others were trapped under rubble in Turkey and Syria after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. The quake struck at a depth of 10 km near the southern Turkish city of Kahramanmaras - about 33 km from the major city of Gaziantep in the early hours of Monday. There were at least 6 aftershocks and monitoring services are now evaluating the risk of a tsunami.
Here's all you need to know about the situation:
1. A 7.8 magnitude quake has knocked down multiple buildings in southeast Turkey and Syria. At least 76 deaths have been reported from Turkey, with others believed to be trapped under rubble. The country's disaster agency said that 440 people have been injured. The toll from the incident may rise as many casualties are feared.
2. Entire buildings have collapsed in northwest Syria with state media reports citing examples from Aleppo and Hama. The opposition's Syrian Civil Defense has urged people in the rebel-held region to evacuate and gather in open areas. In the capital city of Damascus many people had come out onto the streets in fear as the buildings shook.
3. Beyond the directly affected areas, the quake also jolted residents in Lebanon as buildings shook for 40 seconds. Many residents of Beirut left their homes and took to the streets or drove away from buildings. The tremors were also felt in Cyprus and as far as Cairo in Egypt.
4. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan conveyed his support for those affected by the quake, noting that “search and rescue teams were immediately dispatched" to the areas in question. “We hope that we will get through this disaster together as soon as possible and with the least damage," he added in a Twitter thread.
5. Visuals shared online after the quake indicated a trail of devastation with crumbled buildings and fires across several cities. Updates on Turkish television and social media showed rescuers digging through the rubble of levelled buildings in the city of Kahramanmaras and neighbouring Gaziantep.
6. Locals officials said five people died in the province of Osmaniye and 10 more in Sanliurfa, which sits near Turkey's border with Syria. At least 130 buildings tumbled down in Malatya province with authorities retrieving three bodies. Around a hundred people have been hospitalized said officials in the region.
7. Meanwhile in Syria, pro-government media said several buildings had partially collapsed in Hama. State television reported that a building near Latakia, on the west coast of Syria had also collapsed.
8. Civil defence and firefighters in Syria are now working to pull survivors out of the rubble. 11 have so far been reported killed with officials fearing that “the deaths are in the hundreds".
9. “This was historically, the biggest earthquake recorded in the history of the centre," Raed Ahmed, who heads Syria's National Earthquake Centre, told pro-government radio.
10. There were at least 6 aftershocks including a strong 6.7 tremor that rumbled by about 10 minutes after the initial. Turkey sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes. Some 18,000 were killed in powerful earthquakes that hit northwest Turkey in 1999.
(With inputs from agencies)
