Turkey and Syria shaken by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake, nearly 100 dead

Turkey and Syria were hit on Monday February 6 by an earthquake of magnitude 7.8, which killed nearly 100 people and caused very significant damage in both countries, according to initial reports.

The earthquake occurred at 4:17 a.m. local time (1:17 a.m. GMT) at a depth of about 17.9 kilometers.

Its epicenter is 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.

According to state media, 42 people were killed in several cities in Syria, and at least 53 in Turkey, according to an AFP tally based on official sources.

Victims were brought to Bab al-Hawa hospital in Idlib province (Syria).

AAREF WATAD / AFP

At least 23 people have been killed and 420 others injured in Malatya province, its governor told public broadcaster TRT.

The governor of Sanliurfa, quoted by the state agency Anadolu, reported 17 dead and 30 injured in his province.

At least six others were killed in Diyarbakir province, its governor said.

The tremors were also felt in Lebanon and Cyprus, according to AFP correspondents.

Videos posted on social networks show destroyed buildings in several cities in the south-east of the country.

On Twitter, Turkish Internet users shared the identity and location of people trapped under the rubble in several cities in the south-east of the country.

Call for international help

“

,” Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu told the Haberturk channel.

The governor of Gaziantep province called on residents to gather outside.

Turkish rescuers and civil defense as well as Syrian firefighters were at work on Monday morning to try to extract possible victims from the rubble, according to local media.

Very significant material damage raises fears of the discovery of additional victims under the rubble.

RAMI AL SAYED / AFP

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.

In January 2020, a 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck the provinces of Elazig and Malatya (East), killing more than 40 people.

In October of the same year, a magnitude 7 earthquake in the Aegean Sea killed 114 people and injured more than 1,000 in Turkey.