Multi-storey apartment buildings filled with residents were among the structures reduced to rubble
Hatay, Turkey:
Rescue workers in Turkey and Syria dug with their bare hands on a chilly Tuesday night to search for survivors among the rubble of thousands of buildings that collapsed in several violent earthquakes.
The death toll in both countries has topped 4,300 after a strong tremor struck near the Turkey-Syria border – the largest of which measured 7.8-magnitude.
Turkish and Syrian disaster response teams have reported that more than 5,600 buildings have been leveled in several cities, including many multi-storey apartment blocks that were filled with sleeping residents when the quake first struck.
In the city of Kahramanmaras in southeastern Turkey, eyewitnesses struggled to grasp the scale of the disaster.
Reporter Melissa Salman, 23, said, “We thought it was the apocalypse.” “It was the first time we’ve ever experienced anything like this.”
Turkey’s relief agency AFAD said on Tuesday that there have now been 2,921 deaths in that country alone, bringing the confirmed number to 4,365.
There are fears that the death toll will continue to rise, with World Health Organization officials estimating that up to 20,000 may die.
In Gaziantep, a Turkish city home to countless refugees from Syria’s decades-old civil war, rescuers screamed, cried and screamed for safety as another building collapsed nearby without warning.
The initial earthquake was so large that it was felt as far away as Greenland, and its impact was so great that it sparked a global response.
Dozens of countries from Ukraine to New Zealand have vowed to send help, although freezing rain and below-zero temperatures have slowed the response.
In the southeastern Turkish city of Sanliurfa, rescuers worked through the night trying to pull survivors from the rubble of a seven-story building.
“There is a family I know under the rubble,” said 20-year-old Syrian student Omar El Quneid.
“At 11:00 a.m. or until noon, my friend was still picking up the phone. But she didn’t answer anymore. She’s downstairs.”
Despite the bitter cold outside, terrified residents spent the night in the streets, huddled around fires for warmth.
Mustafa Koyuncu packed his wife and their five children into his car, too afraid to move.
“We can’t go home,” the 55-year-old told AFP. “Everyone is afraid.”
Some of the heaviest devastation occurred between Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep, near the epicenter of the earthquake, where entire city blocks were reduced to ruins due to snow accumulation.
– ‘Apocalypse’ –
The US Geological Survey said Monday’s first quake struck at 4:17 a.m. (0117 GMT) at a depth of about 18 kilometers (11 miles) near Gaziantep, the Turkish city that is home to about two million people.
Turkey’s disaster management agency said more than 14,000 people were reported injured so far, while Syria said at least 3,411 were injured.
Officials said three major airports had been disabled, making the delivery of vital aid difficult.
The winter blizzard has covered major roads in the region with snow and ice.
Much of the quake-hit area in northern Syria has already been devastated by years of war and aerial bombardment by Syrian and Russian forces, which destroyed homes, hospitals and clinics.
The conflict is already shaping the emergency response, with Syria’s UN envoy Bassam Sabbagh refusing to reopen border crossings that would allow aid to reach areas controlled by rebel groups.
The Syrian health ministry reported damage in the provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Tartus, where Russia is leasing a naval facility.
Even before the tragedy, buildings in Aleppo – Syria’s pre-war commercial center – often collapsed due to dilapidated infrastructure, which suffered from a lack of wartime inspections.
Authorities shut off natural gas and electricity to the entire region as a precaution, as well as closing schools for two weeks.
The United Nations cultural agency UNESCO expressed concern over the heavy damage in two cities on its heritage list – Aleppo in Syria and Diyarbakır in Turkey.
A source at the facility told AFP that at least 20 escaped after inmates mutinied after the earthquake at a prison in northwestern Syria mostly held by members of the Islamic State group.
The United States, the European Union and Russia all immediately offered condolences and help.
President Joe Biden promised his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the United States would send “any and all” aid to help him recover from the devastating earthquake.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also offered to provide “necessary assistance” to Turkey, whose combat drones are helping Kyiv fight off the Russian offensive.
Turkey is one of the most active earthquake zones in the world.
The country’s last 7.8-magnitude quake occurred in 1939, when 33,000 people were killed in eastern Ergincan province.
In 1999 a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck the Turkish region of Duz, killing more than 17,000 people.
Experts have long warned that a major earthquake could devastate Istanbul, a megalopolis of 16 million people filled with dilapidated homes.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)