breaking news
Status: 02/06/2023 04:28 am
Two violent earthquakes occurred in quick succession in the early hours of the morning in south-eastern Turkey. The situation is very confusing. According to initial reports, at least ten people have died. There are also reports of damage from Syria.
Southeast Turkey has been shaken by two violent earthquakes. According to initial reports, at least ten people died. The US earthquake monitor USGS gave magnitudes of 6.7 and 7.8 for the two tremors. 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 around 17.9 kilometers. In both cases, the epicenter was near the city of Gaziantep, not far from the border with Syria.
Pictures from the state broadcaster “TRT” show that numerous buildings are damaged. Residents gathered on snowy streets. Several buildings also collapsed in neighboring provinces of Malatya and Diyarbakir, TV HaberTurk reported. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote on Twitter that rescue and search teams were on their way to the affected areas. “We hope that we can survive this catastrophe together in the shortest possible time and with as little damage as possible.”
Syria also appears to have been badly affected
The earthquake was also felt in Lebanon and Syria. Syria’s state media reported that some buildings in the northern city of Aleppo and the central city of Hama had collapsed. According to first eyewitness reports on social media, people were buried under the rubble. The exact extent of the disaster is not yet foreseeable. Several strong aftershocks followed.
Only at the end of January did an earthquake shake the border region between Turkey and Iran. Turkey is located in one of the most active seismic regions in the world. In 1999, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake in Düzce in the north killed more than 17,000 people.