More than 660 people have been killed and thousands more injured in a disastrous 7.8 magnitude earthquake that rocked Turkey and Syria overnight, flattening whole neighbourhoods while numerous families were still sleeping.
Tremors from the killer earthquake, which lasted about a minute and could be Turkey’s largest ever, was felt as far away as Egypt, Lebanon and the island of Cyprus, while a tsunami alert was briefly issued by authorities in Italy along the country’s coast.
Residents ran from their homes in hysteria in cities across southeast Turkey and northern Syria, taking refuge in cars from a wave of at least 40 aftershocks and collapsing structures.
Concerns increased for people ensnared under the debris as thousands of rescue workers leapt into action, searching through wrecked buildings for survivors who could be heard screaming out from beneath the wreckage.
One video from the border town of Azaz, Syria, showed a rescuer desperately running through a field of debris with an injured child in his arms, while another showed the entire destruction of a building in Sanliurfa, Turkey.
The earthquake was centred north of Gaziantep, Turkey, which is approximately 60 miles from the Syrian border and has a population of approximately 2 million. The area is home to a large number of Syrian refugees.
It struck at 04:17 am local time (0117 GMT) at a depth of approximately 11 miles, the US Geological Survey said. A powerful 6.7 aftershock rumbled about 10 minutes later. Turkey’s own agency said 40 aftershocks were felt.
Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Agency said the quake killed scores of people in seven Turkish regions.
About six hours after the earthquake struck, Turkey’s Vice President Fuat Otkay confirmed that the death toll had increased by 284 and said that 2,323 people had been injured. He said about 900 buildings in Turkey’s Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras regions had been destroyed.
Meanwhile, at least 237 have been killed and about 639 injured in government-controlled regions of Syria, with the victims mainly in Aleppo, Latakia, Tartus and Hama, Syrian officials said.
The White Helmets said at least a further 147 people had been killed in rebel-held areas in Syria, bringing the overall death toll from the huge earthquake to 668 so far.
The volunteer civil defence organisation said the earthquake had resulted in hundreds of injuries, dozens of deaths, and people being left in the winter cold.
This is devastating and hopefully, these people will get the help that they urgently need because this tragedy occurred in the early hours of the morning and people were sleeping in their beds – horrific!
And it’s extremely disturbing to see injured and traumatised little children being dragged from the rubble, they are just innocents.
This is what our Overseas Aid should be used for – catastrophes like this, not for lining the pockets of goodness knows who, and the rescuers are such courageous people, they are the heroes and our hearts should go out to those that have lost their lives.
Please whisper good thoughts and prayers to the families who have been devastated by the earthquake because everyone must be extremely scared.
Those poor people – our problems are small compared to theirs, and this is extremely sad news because it’s a major earthquake and I fear that the death toll will grow very sharply.
An earthquake of that calibre is no joke, it’s a big one and it’s not funny, but some people have made some extremely disrespectful comments online. It’s okay to have your views on this in your mind, but these are children that have perished as well as adults, so please keep your views offline, and if people have nothing nice to say about this catastrophe then don’t say anything at all.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 