Emergencies: Violent earthquakes shake parts of Turkey and Syria

emergencies
Violent earthquakes shake parts of Turkey and Syria

The epicenter of the earthquake was near the city of Gaziantep. photo

© Soeren Stache/dpa

Southeast Turkey and northern Syria were hit by severe earthquakes. Eyewitnesses report collapsed buildings, people are said to be buried under the rubble.

Two violent earthquakes shook the south-east of Turkey in quick succession early Monday morning. According to the Geoforschungszentrum Potsdam, the two earthquakes had magnitudes of 7.4 and 7.9. They occurred 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 10 kilometers. In both cases, the epicenter was near the city of Gaziantep, not far from the border with Syria.

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 disaster was initially not foreseeable. Several strong aftershocks followed.

dpa

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