At least 2,500 people were killed and thousands were injured in two countries in severe earthquakes in Turkey on the border with Syria. Aid organizations expect the number to increase as many people were buried. The affected provinces are below zero and it is snowing in some areas.
In Turkey alone, at least 1,650 deaths were counted on Monday. In Syria, the Ministry of Health and the rescue organization White Helmets spoke of at least 936 dead and 2,400 injured in the evening.
On Monday night, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake with an epicenter near Kahramanmaraş shook southeast Turkey, followed shortly afterwards by another 6.6-magnitude quake in Gaziantep province. Another 7.5 magnitude earthquake was measured in south-eastern Turkey on Monday afternoon, again with the epicenter in Kahramanmaraş.
According to Vice President Fuat Oktay, the tremors were felt in ten provinces in Turkey. Thousands of buildings collapsed. The Interior Ministry said rescue teams from across the country would be brought together. In addition, alarm level four was declared and international help was requested. There were a total of 22 aftershocks, some strong.
Weather conditions made rescue work difficult, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said. Several airports in the affected areas were initially closed to civilian flights due to the cold temperatures and snowfall.
Among the collapsed buildings in Turkey was a hospital in the city of İskenderun, in addition to residential houses. According to the state news agency Anadolu, the castle in the city of Gaziantep was also badly damaged. People in Turkey were asked not to use the mobile phone network because of the communication bottlenecks, so that buried people can be reached first.
President Erdoğan wrote on Twitter: “We hope that we can get through this catastrophe together in the shortest possible time and with as little damage as possible.” Turkey asked NATO for field hospitals designed for extreme weather conditions. About 45 countries have offered Turkey help, according to Erdoğan. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced that the EU’s disaster relief center would coordinate the deployment of European rescue workers.
According to the state news agency Sana, buildings in numerous cities in Syria collapsed. Rescue teams tried to pull people out of the rubble during the night and at dawn. According to the agency Sana, the head of the National Earthquake Center, Raed Ahmed, said it was the strongest earthquake in Syria since 1995. President Bashar al-Assad called his cabinet for an emergency meeting. The rebel-held region of Idlib was one of the hardest-hit areas by the earthquake. This is likely to make emergency aid more difficult.