HEADLINE | MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA | Quake kills over 1,400 in Turkey, Syria
This aerial view shows residents helped by bulldozers, searching for victims and survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings, following an earthquake in the town of Sarmada in the countryside of the northwestern Syrian Idlib province, early on February 6, 2023. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria on February 6, killing hundreds of people as they slept, levelling buildings, and sending tremors that were felt as far away as the island of Cyprus and Egypt. (AFP/Muhammad Haj Kadour)
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The most powerful earthquake in nearly a century struck Turkey and Syria early Monday, killing over 1,400 people in their sleep, levelling buildings and causing tremors felt as far away as Greenland.
The 7.8-magnitude night-time tremor, followed hours later by a slightly smaller one, wiped out entire sections of major Turkish cities in a region filled with millions of people who have fled the civil war in Syria and other conflicts.
The head of Syria’s National Earthquake Centre, Raed Ahmed, called it “the biggest earthquake recorded in the history of the centre”.
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ADANA, Turkey: Rescuers in Turkey and war-ravaged Syria searched through the frigid night into Tuesday, hoping to pull more survivors from the rubble after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed more than 3,400 people and toppled thousands of buildings across a wide region.
Authorities feared the death toll from Monday’s pre-dawn earthquake and aftershocks would keep climbing as rescuers looked for survivors among tangles of metal and concrete spread across the region beset by Syria’s 12-year civil war and refugee crisis.
Survivors cried out for help from within mountains of debris as first responders contended with rain and snow. Seismic activity continued to rattle the region, including another jolt nearly as powerful as the initial quake. Workers carefully pulled away slabs of concrete and reached for bodies as desperate families waited for news of loved ones.
“My grandson is 1 1/2 years old. Please help them, please…. They were on the 12th floor,” Imran Bahur wept by her destroyed apartment building in the Turkish city of Adana on Monday.
Tens of thousands who were left homeless in Turkey and Syria faced a night in the cold. In the Turkish city of Gaziantep, a provincial capital about 33 kilometers (20 miles) from the epicenter, people took refuge in shopping malls, stadiums, mosques and community centers. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared seven days of national mourning.
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Feature: Mega earthquake adds to anguish of already-suffering Syrians
People warm themselves around a bonfire in the rubble in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southeast on February 7, 2023/AFPPix.
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ALEPPO (Syria): “This seconds-long tremor pushed us all out,“ 57-year-old Johar Jarouj told Xinhua at a shelter he sought refuge at after the deadly earthquake jolted parts of Syria and Turkey earlier on Monday.
Jarouj was awakened by the shaking of his home in the Slaimaniyeh neighbourhood in the old city of Aleppo. At first, he and other members of his family thought it was a simple tremor and decided to continue sleeping. However, another wave, much more powerful this time, occurred right after the first one, which forced them to flee to the street.
When the earthquake ended, his building sustained some cracks and seemed dangerous to stay at so he sought refuge at the Marian Brothers Monastery in Aleppo. But after a long and excruciating day, he could not fall asleep.
“We haven’t slept since this morning, because we are still terrified. Even my little children can’t fall asleep. It was a great horror,“ he said.
At the same monastery, Samer Samihni, a father of five, said his house was also damaged in the earthquakes.
He said he had never experienced anything like that in his life, even during the brutal battles fought in Aleppo, adding what frightened him most was not the tremor but his children’s screams.
“It was so powerful and our life was at mercy. It was the first time I witnessed such a thing,“ the man recounted.
Walking inside the old city of Aleppo after the earthquake, one gets a strange feeling because scenes of destruction in Aleppo are not unfamiliar at all – due to the fact that large parts of the old city are still in ruins after the cruel battle of Aleppo fought from 2012 to 2016.
While destruction is not out of place there, the new thing is the people’s will to move on and save lives.
George al-Saba’, director of the Marian Brothers Monastery, told Xinhua that his monastery received more than 750 displaced people since Monday morning, noting that the refugees were provided with essential needs.
“We provided breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals. We also offered heating and most importantly safety so that people could feel safe after this day,“ al-Saba’ told Xinhua.
The streets in Aleppo are full of people working onthe wreckage, relentlessly digging with the civil defence and other rescue teams.
According to the Syrian health ministry, at least 656 people were killed and 1,419 wounded by the earthquake in the Syrian provinces of Latakia, Tartous, Hama, and Aleppo in northern Syria, while the Britain-based pro-rebel Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the 7.7-magnitude killed 1,350 people and wounded 2,000 others both in government areas and in the rebel-held areas in Idlib and Aleppo provinces. –Bernama
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