More than 1,500 people were killed in southern Turkey and neighboring Syria by a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.8, followed a few hours later by a very strong aftershock of magnitude 7.5, tremors recorded as far away as Greenland.
This assessment, very provisional, should increase, a very large number of people remaining trapped under the rubble. The snow, which is falling in abundance and the drop in temperatures, expected in the evening and tomorrow, will make the situation of people finding themselves homeless, as well as the work of the relief workers, even more difficult.
The first tremor occurred at 4:17 a.m. local time (8:17 p.m. Sunday EST) in Pazarcik district, Kahramanmaras province, about 60 km as the crow flies from the Syrian border.
Dozens of aftershocks followed, before a new earthquake of magnitude 7.5, at 1:24 p.m. local time, still in southeastern Turkey, four km southeast of the town of Ekinozu.
After the second earthquake, Tulin, a young woman in her thirties living in Kayapinar, in the district of Diyarbakir, recounts her “fear” of returning home.
“I felt it strongly because I live on the top floor. We walked out in a panic. It was almost the same as this morning. I’m so scared now, I can’t go back to my apartment, I don’t know what’s going to happen now,” she told AFP.
And the tolls continue to climb: in northern Syria, at least 592 people have been killed and more than a thousand others have been injured, according to provisional reports communicated by state media and emergency workers in rebel area.
In Turkey, at least 912 people were killed and more than 5,385 injured, in seven different provinces, according to data provided by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who reported 2,818 collapsed buildings.
“My sister and her three children are under the rubble. Also her husband, father-in-law and mother-in-law. Seven members of our family are under the debris,” Muhittin Orakci, who was waiting for rescue operations in front of a collapsed building in Diyarbakir, the large Kurdish-majority city in southeastern Turkey, told AFP.
Severe weather
“His sister is still under the debris,” said a woman pointing to another crying victim in Diyarbakir.
The balance sheet is likely to change rapidly given the number of collapsed buildings in the cities affected, such as Adana, Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir in particular.
In Iskenderun and Adiyaman, public hospitals collapsed under the effect of the earthquake, which occurred in the middle of the night at 4:17 a.m. local time (8:17 p.m. EST), according to the American seismological institute USGS, at a depth of approximately 17.9 kilometers.
The epicenter is located in the district of Pazarcik, in the province of Kahramanmaras, about 60 km as the crow flies from the Syrian border.
This earthquake is the largest in Turkey since the earthquake of August 17, 1999, which caused the death of 17,000 people, including a thousand in Istanbul.
The bad weather hitting this mountainous region paralyzes the main airports around Diyarbakir and Malatya, where it continues to snow very heavily, leaving the survivors haggard, in their pajamas outside in the cold.
“We hear voices here and there. We believe that maybe 200 people are under the rubble,” said a rescue worker dispatched to a destroyed building in Diyarbakir, according to images broadcast on the NTV channel.
Faced with this desolation, the inhabitants everywhere are mobilizing and trying to clear the ruins with their bare hands, using buckets to evacuate the debris.
Further south, still according to NTV, the Byzantine citadel of Gaziantep, erected at 6e century, has partially collapsed.
In Syria, the earthquake caused scenes of panic, the inhabitants rushing outside, on foot or by car, despite the torrential rains, as well as in neighboring Lebanon where the tremors were strongly felt.
International aid
The Turkish president, whose reaction to this tragedy will most likely be closely watched before the May 14 election which promises to be very tight, called for national unity.
“We hope we get out of this disaster together as quickly as possible and with as little damage as possible,” he tweeted.
The European Union, many of whose Member States have offered aid to the populations of the devastated regions, has begun to send relief teams.
“We are following, shocked, the news of the earthquake in the border region between Turkey and Syria. The death toll continues to rise. We mourn with the families and tremble for those buried,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz tweeted.
The United States, Russia, Israel and Ukraine have also offered assistance.
Azerbaijan, a sister country to Turkey, announced the immediate dispatch of 370 rescue workers, and India reported sending rescue and medical teams.
In Syria, according to Health Ministry figures reported by the official Sana news agency, 371 people were killed and 1,089 injured in government areas. The White Helmets, rescue workers in rebel areas, reported 221 dead and 419 injured, adding that this toll was provisional.
In Turkey, the heaviest damage was recorded near the epicenter of the night’s quake, between Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep, where entire city blocks lay in ruins under snow.
Gas pipelines
“It is not possible to say how many people are dead and injured at the moment because there are so many destroyed buildings,” Kahramanmaras Governor Omer Faruk Cosku said.
A mosque dating from the 13th centurye century was partially destroyed in the province of Maltaya, where a 13-storey building with 28 apartments collapsed.
The gas pipelines supplying the region were also affected and the provinces of Hatay, Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep are deprived of gas, said the public body Botas.
Iraqi Kurdistan has announced that it has suspended its oil exports to Turkey “for safety reasons”.
The tremors, felt across the southeast of the country, were also felt in Lebanon and Cyprus, according to AFP correspondents, as well as in Iraqi Kurdistan in the north of the country in Erbil and Douk, but no casualties has not been reported.
According to the Danish Geological Institute, the tremors were felt as far away as Greenland.
Turkey is located on one of the most active seismic zones in the world.
At the end of November, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck northwestern Turkey, injuring around 50 people and causing limited damage, according to the Turkish emergency services.