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After the devastating earthquake, people in the Turkish city of Diyarbakır are looking for survivors
Photo:
MAHMUT BOZARSLAN v AFP
Two powerful earthquakes measuring 7.4 and 7.9 in magnitude shook southeast Turkey early Monday morning.
According to the Geoforschungszentrum Potsdam, the epicenter was in both cases near the city of Gaziantep, not far from the border with Syria.
Accordingly, the tremors occurred at around 4.17 a.m. (local time/2.17 a.m. CET) and 4.28 a.m. (local time/2.28 a.m. CET) at a depth of about ten kilometers.
Turkey's Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said people were killed in the tremors.
He did not give an exact number.
According to Soylu, several provinces in the south-east of the country have been affected.
Rescue teams from across the country would be pulled together.
There were a total of 22 aftershocks, some strong.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wrote on Twitter: "We hope that we can get through this disaster together in the shortest possible time and with as little damage as possible."
According to initial eyewitness reports on social media, north-western Syria was also severely affected.
Accordingly, buildings collapsed in the border area, people were buried under rubble.
The exact extent of the catastrophe was initially not foreseeable.
Turkey is repeatedly affected by severe earthquakes.
Two of the largest continental plates meet there: the African and the Eurasian.
In fact, most of the Turkish population lives in constant danger of earthquakes.
aar/dpa