Powerful quake measuring 7.8 kills at least 640 people in Turkey, Syria

[Kool_SRG]

Hundreds were still believed to be trapped under rubble, and the toll was expected to rise as rescue workers searched mounds of wreckage in cities and towns across the area.

 

A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southern Turkey and northern Syria early Monday, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing at least 641 people.

Hundreds were still believed to be trapped under rubble, and the toll was expected to rise as rescue workers searched mounds of wreckage in cities and towns across the area.

On both sides of the border, residents jolted out of sleep by the pre-dawn quake rushed outside on a cold, rainy and snowy winter night, as buildings were flattened and strong aftershocks continued.

Rescue workers and residents in multiple cities searched for survivors, working through tangles of metal and giant piles of concrete.

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. Further east in Diyarbakir, cranes and rescue teams rushed people on stretchers out of a mountain of pancaked concrete floors that was once an apartment building.

 

On the Syrian side of the border, the quake smashed opposition-held regions that are packed with some 4 million people displaced from other parts of Syria by the country’s long civil war. Many of them live in buildings that are already wrecked from past bombardment. Hundreds of families remained trapped in rubble, the opposition emergency organization, called the White Helmets, said in a statement. Strained health facilities and hospitals were quickly filled with wounded, rescue workers said.

“We fear that the deaths are in the hundreds,” Muheeb Qaddour, a doctor, said by phone from the town of Atmeh.

The quake, felt as far away as Cairo, struck a region that has been shaped by more than a decade of civil war in Syria. Millions of Syrian refugees live in Turkey. The swath of Syria affected by the quake is divided between government-held territory and the country’s last opposition-held enclave, which is surrounded by Russian-backed government forces. The quake was centered about 90 kilometers (60 miles) from the Syrian border outside the city of Gaziantep, a major Turkish provincial capital.

At least 20 aftershocks followed, some hours later during daylight, the strongest measuring 6.6, Turkish authorities said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Twitter that “search and rescue teams were immediately dispatched” to the areas hit by the quake.

“We hope that we will get through this disaster together as soon as possible and with the least damage,” he wrote.

Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management agency said at least 284 people were killed in seven Turkish provinces. The agency said 440 people were injured. 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, according to the White Helmets.

Buildings were reported collapsed in a cross-border swath extending from Syria’s cities of Aleppo and Hama to Turkey’s Diyarbakir, more than 330 kilometers (200 miles) to the northeast. Nearly 900 buildings were destroyed in Turkey’s Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras provinces, said Vice President Fuat Otkay. A hospital collapsed in the Mediterranean coastal city of Iskanderoun, but casualties were not immediately known, he said.

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

In Turkey, 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. Mosques around the region were being opened up as a shelter for people unable to return to damaged homes amid temperatures that hovered around freezing.

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

In Diyarbakir, hundreds of rescue workers and civilians formed lines across a mountain of wreckage, passing down broken concrete pieces, household belongings and other debris as they searched for trapped survivors while excavators dug through the rubble below. Survivors were strapped to stretchers and carefully handed down to a street where they were put in an ambulance. A gray-haired woman wailed before being escorted away by a man, while a rescue worker wearing a white helmet tried to calm a crying girl, who was also being cuddled by two friends.

In northwest Syria, the quake added new woes to the opposition-held enclave centered on the province of Idlib, which has been under siege for years, with frequent Russian and government airstrikes. The territory depends on a flow of aid from nearby Turkey for everything from food to medical supplies.

The opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense described the situation there as “disastrous” adding that entire buildings have collapsed and people are trapped under the rubble.

In the small Syrian rebel-held town of Azmarin in the mountains by the Turkish border, the bodies of several dead children, wrapped in blankets, were brought to a hospital.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 33 kilometers (20 miles) from Gaziantep. It was centered 18 kilometers (11 miles) deep.

In Damascus, buildings shook and many people went down to the streets in fear. The quake jolted residents in Lebanon from beds, shaking buildings for about 40 seconds. Many residents of Beirut left their homes and took to the streets or drove in their cars away from buildings, terrorized by memories of the 2020 port explosion that wrecked a large swath of the city.

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.

[Kool_SRG]

[Kool_SRG]

Second quake of 7.6 strikes Turkey, Syria; death toll over 1,300

[Kool_SRG]

India to send search & rescue teams of NDRF, medical teams, relief material to Turkey

The Indian government has decided to immediately dispatch search and rescue teams of the National Disaster Response Force, medical teams and relief material to earthquake-hit Turkey, This is following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's instructions to offer all possible assistance.

Two teams of the NDRF comprising 100 personnel with specially trained dog squads and necessary equipment are ready to be flown to the quake-hit region. Medical teams are being formed with trained doctors and paramedics. They will carry essential medicines.

The decision was taken at a meeting held by PM Modi's principal secretary P K Mishra.

[Kool_SRG]

More than 1,300 people were killed when an earthquake struck central Turkey and north-west Syria, in one of the most powerful quakes in the region in at least a century, while a second powerful shake hours later threatened to overwhelm rescue efforts.

Thousands more were injured as the quake wiped out entire sections of major cities in a region filled with millions of people who have fled the civil war in Syria.

 

The magnitude 7.8 quake, which hit in the early darkness of a winter morning, was followed by a second, 7.7 quake in the middle of the day on Monday, as rescuers in both countries were still attempting to search for survivors.

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said 912 people were killed, 5,383 injured, and 2,818 buildings had collapsed.

In Syria, already wrecked by more than 11 years of civil war, the health ministry said more than 326 people had been killed and 1,042 injured. In the Syrian rebel-held north-west, rescuers said 147 people had died.

 

[Kool_SRG]

Second large earthquake strikes Turkey and Syria less than 12 hours after first

Turkey reports that a second massive earthquake in less than 12 hours has hit the southeast of the country. State media in Syria have also said that Damascus was affected by the latest large quake, although details remain scant.

The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said that preliminary data showed the quake measured 7.7 magnitude on the Richter scale, and was 67 km (42 miles) north north-east of Kahramanmaraş, Turkey, at a depth of 2 km. Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority stated that it was slightly smaller at 7.6 magnitude and at a greater depth.

The combined official death toll from the first quake in Turkey and Syria had already risen to over 1,200, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan describing it as the country’s largest disaster since 1939. He said that 912 people had been killed, with 5,383 wounded.

Syria’s state news agency reported more than 320 dead in the country, with over 1,000 wounded. The White Helmets rescue service has also reported that 147 people had died and more than 340 were injured in Syria in areas where it operates.

The first quake struck as people slept, and measured 7.8 on the Richter scale, one of the most powerful quakes in the region in at least a century. Search and rescue operations have been hampered by poor weather. Turkey’s president said that over 45 nations had so far offered assistance.

[Kool_SRG]

Looks Massive Devastation 

[Kool_SRG]

[sarfaroshi]

How many isis members are dead.

[Pahelwan2]

scared to live in apartments. What if it happens in india. 

[Kool_SRG]

More than 1,700 dead in Turkey and Syria after three devastating quakes hit

Third quake hits Turkey within 18 hours

A third quake, this time of magnitude 6, hit Turkey within a span of 18 hours.

Meanwhile, the death toll in Turkey and Syria has mounted to 1,700. "I think we can expect the death toll to increase significantly," Rick Brennan, the WHO's regional emergency director for the Eastern Mediterranean, told Reuters. "There's been a lot of building collapses and it will increase more significantly around the epicentre of the earthquake."

[WigsandThighs]

Paapam

[argadorn]

1 hour ago, Pahelwan2 said:

scared to live in apartments. What if it happens in india. 

Atleast hyderbad is safe from earthquakes 

[bhaigan]

[Pahelwan2]

3 minutes ago, argadorn said:

Atleast hyderbad is safe from earthquakes 

Em cheppalem vayya