Syria

More Than 3,400 Dead as Powerful Earthquakes Rock Syria and Turkey

The U.S. Geological Survey measured Monday's quake at 7.8. At least 20 aftershocks followed, authorities said, including one that measured 7.5

NBC Universal, Inc. A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southeast Turkey and northern Syria early Monday, killing and injuring thousands of people in the two countries, and reducing hundreds of buildings to piles of rubble.

A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked wide swaths of Turkey and neighboring Syria on Monday, killing more than 3,400 people and injuring thousands more as it toppled thousands of buildings and trapped residents under mounds of rubble.

Authorities feared the death toll would keep climbing as rescuers searched through tangles of metal and concrete for survivors in a region beset by Syria’s 12-year civil war and a refugee crisis.

Residents jolted out of sleep by the pre-dawn quake rushed outside in the rain and snow to escape falling debris, while those who were trapped cried for help. Throughout the day, major aftershocks rattled the region, including a jolt nearly as strong as the initial quake. After night fell, workers were still sawing away slabs and pulling out bodies as desperate families waited for news on trapped loved ones.

“My grandson is 1 1/2 years old. Please help them, please. We can’t hear them or get any news from them since morning. Please, they were on the 12th floor,” Imran Bahur wept by her destroyed apartment building in the Turkish city of Adana. Her daughter and family were still not found.

Tens of thousands who were left homeless in Turkey and Syria faced a night in the cold. In Turkey’s Gaziantep, a provincial capital about 33 kilometers (20 miles) from the epicenter, people took refuge in shopping malls, stadiums and community centers. Mosques around the region were opened to provide shelter.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared seven days of national mourning.

The quake, which was centered on Turkey’s southeastern province of Kahramanmaras, sent residents of Damascus and Beirut rushing into the street and was felt as far away as Cairo.

The quake piled more misery on a region that has seen tremendous suffering over the past decade. On the Syrian side, the area is divided between government-held territory and the country’s last opposition-held enclave, which is surrounded by Russian-backed government forces. Turkey, meanwhile, is home to millions of refugees from the civil war.

In the rebel-held enclave, hundreds of families remained trapped in rubble, the opposition emergency organization, called the White Helmets said in a statement. The area is packed with some 4 million people displaced from other parts of the country by the war. Many of them live in buildings that are already wrecked from past bombardments.

Strained health facilities quickly filled with injured, rescue workers said. Others had to be emptied, including a maternity hospital, according to the SAMS medical organization.

More than 7,800 people were rescued across 10 provinces, according to Orhan Tatar, an official with Turkey’s disaster management authority.

The region sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes. Some 18,000 were killed in similarly powerful earthquakes that hit northwest Turkey in 1999.

The U.S. Geological Survey measured Monday’s quake at 7.8, with a depth of 18 kilometers (11 miles). Hours later, a 7.5 magnitude temblor struck more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) away.

The second jolt in the afternoon caused a multistory apartment building to topple face-forward onto the street in the Turkish city of Sanliurfa. The structure disintegrated into rubble and raised a cloud of dust as bystanders screamed, according to video of the scene.

Thousands of buildings were reported collapsed in a wide area extending from Syria’s cities of Aleppo and Hama to Turkey’s Diyarbakir, more than 330 kilometers (200 miles) to the northeast.

In Turkey alone, more than 5,600 buildings were destroyed, authorities said. Hospitals were damaged, and one collapsed in the Turkish city of Iskenderun.

Bitterly cold temperatures could reduce the time frame that rescuers have to save trapped survivors, said Dr. Steven Godby, an expert in natural hazards at Nottingham Trent University. The difficulty of working in areas beset by civil war would further complicate rescue efforts, he said.

Offers of help — from search-and-rescue teams to medical supplies and money — poured in from dozens of countries, as well as the European Union and NATO. The vast majority were for Turkey, with Russian and even an Israeli promise of help to the Syrian government, but it was not clear if any would go to the devastated rebel-held pocket in the northwest.

The opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense described the situation in the enclave as “disastrous.”

The opposition-held area, centered on the province of Idlib, has been under siege for years, with frequent Russian and government airstrikes. The territory depends on a flow of aid from nearby Turkey for everything from food to medical supplies.

At a hospital in Idlib, Osama Abdel Hamid said most of his neighbors died. He said their shared four-story building collapsed just as he, his wife and three children ran toward the exit. A wooden door fell on them and acted as a shield.

“God gave me a new lease on life,” he said.

Video captured the moment when a building went down in the Turkish city of Malatya after a series of earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria.

In the small Syrian rebel-held town of Azmarin in the mountains by the Turkish border, the bodies of several dead children, wrapped in blankets, were brought to a hospital.

Television stations in Turkey aired screens split into four or five, showing live coverage from rescue efforts in the worst-hit provinces.

In the city of Kahramanmaras, rescuers pulled two children alive from the rubble, and one could be seen lying on a stretcher on the snowy ground. Turkish broadcaster CNN Turk said a woman was pulled out alive in Gaziantep after a rescue dog detected her.

In Adana, 20 or so people, some in emergency rescue jackets, used power saws atop the concrete mountain of a collapsed building to saw out space for any survivors to climb out or be rescued.

“I don’t have the strength anymore,” one survivor could be heard calling out from beneath the rubble of another building in Adana earlier in the day, as rescue workers tried to reach him, said a resident, journalism student Muhammet Fatih Yavuz.

In Diyarbakir, hundreds of rescue workers and civilians formed lines across a mountain of wreckage, passing down broken concrete pieces, household belongings and other debris as they searched for trapped survivors while excavators dug through the rubble below.

At least 2,316 people were killed in 10 Turkish provinces, with more than 13,000 injured, according to Turkish authorities. The death toll in government-held areas of Syria climbed to 656 people, with some 1,400 injured, according to the Health Ministry. In the country’s rebel-held northwest, groups that operate there said the death toll was at least 450, with many hundreds injured.

Huseyin Yayman, a legislator from Turkey’s Hatay province, said several of his family members were stuck under the rubble of their collapsed homes.

“There are so many other people who are also trapped,” he told HaberTurk television by phone. “There are so many buildings that have been damaged. People are on the streets. It’s raining, it’s winter.”

Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP via Getty Images
Kahraman, 62, walks past a row of collapsed buildings after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit the Hatay province in southern Turkey, Antakya, Feb. 21, 2023. The 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck on February 20, two weeks after a 7.8-magnitude quake hit near Gaziantep, Turkey, in the early hours of February 6.
Murat Saka/dia images via Getty Images
Search and rescue teams look respond to a destroyed building in an Uzbek village damaged by the earthquake, Feb. 21, 2023, in Hatay, Turkey. The death toll from a catastrophic earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria has topped 46,000, with search and rescue teams starting to wind down their work.
Murat Saka/dia images via Getty Images
A young child stand in destroyed street of an Uzbek village damaged by earthquakes, Feb. 21, 2023 in Hatay, Turkey. The death toll from a catastrophic earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria has topped 46,000, with search and rescue teams starting to wind down their work.
Ibrahim Oner/SOPA via Getty Images
Soldiers examine a newborn baby rescued from the rubble in Hatay, Turkey, Feb. 8, 2023. The newborn, 20-days old, was rescued 59 hours after the earthquake and reported to be in good health. Rescue efforts continue for his mother.
Ibrahim Oner/SOPA via Getty Images
Soldiers rush a newborn to an ambulance for medical treatment in Hatay, Turkey, Feb. 8, 2023. The newborn, 20-days old, was rescued 59 hours after the earthquake and reported to be in good health. Rescue efforts continue for his mother.
Burak Kara/Getty Images
Rescue workers carry Yigit Cakmak, an 8-years-old survivor at the site of a collapsed building 52 hours after the earthquake struck, on Feb. 8, 2023, in Hatay, Turkey. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit near Gaziantep, Turkey, in the early hours of Monday, followed by another 7.5-magnitude tremor just after midday. The quakes caused widespread destruction in southern Turkey and northern Syria and were felt in nearby countries.
Burak Kara/Getty Images
People gather around the rubble of collapsed buildings, Feb. 8, 2023, in Hatay, Turkey. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit near Gaziantep, Turkey, in the early hours of Monday, followed by another 7.5-magnitude tremor just after midday. The quakes caused widespread destruction in southern Turkey and northern Syria and were felt in nearby countries.
Cansu Yildirann/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Volunteers work to rescue a woman trapped under debris from a collapsed building in Hatay, Turkey, Feb. 8, 2023. Turkey’s government is overwhelmed by the extent of the damage to infrastructure, logistical problems and aid needed to assist the 13.4 million people living in the disaster zone.
Umit Turhan Coskun/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Survivors of the earthquake waiting on news of relatives buried under the rubble hug in Hatay, Turkey, Feb. 8, 2023. Hatay is one of the hardest hit regions in Turkey, after a massive 7.8 earthquake and its aftershocks devastated the area.
Rami al Sayed/AFP via Getty Images
Members of the Syrian civil defense, known as the White Helmets, warm themselves by a fire next to the rubble of a collapsed building in Jinderis, Feb. 7, 2023, as search and rescue operations continue following a deadly earthquake.
Mehmet Kacmaz/Getty Images
A woman cries as she waits for the autopsy to be carried out on her aunt, in front of the Elbistan State Hospital, Feb. 8, 2023, in Elbistan Turkey. The massive 7.8 earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria devastated the area, leveling towns and killing thousands of people as they slept early Monday morning.
Tunahan Turhan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
People seen waiting in the earthquake zone on Feb. 7, 2023. Turkey experienced the biggest earthquake of this century in the border region with Syria. The earthquake was measured at 7.7 magnitude.
Tunahan Turhan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Search operations continue after the earthquake on Feb. 7, 2023. Turkey experienced the biggest earthquake of this century in the border region with Syria. The earthquake was measured at 7.7 magnitude.
AytugCan Sencar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Baby Ayse Vera and her mother, Hulya Yilmaz (not pictured), are rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building, 29 hours after powerful earthquakes hit Hatay, Turkey, Feb. 7, 2023.
Rami al Sayed/AFP via Getty Images
A newborn baby, who was found still tied by her umbilical cord to her mother then pulled alive from the rubble of a home in northern Syria, receives medical care from doctor Hani Maaruf, at a clinic in Afrin, Feb. 7, 2023. The infant is the sole survivor of her immediate family, the rest of whom were all killed when a 7.8-magnitude quake that struck Syria and Turkey flattened the family home in the rebel-held town of Jindaris, the baby’s cousin, Khalil al-Suwadi, said.
Rami al Sayed/AFP via Getty Images
A Syrian boy watches an excavator go through the rubble of a house in which an entire family, save a newborn baby, was killed, Feb. 7, 2023, in the town of Jandaris, Syria, following a deadly earthquake. Residents and rescue workers uncovered a newborn survivor trapped under rubble, her umbilical chord still tied to her mother, who died when the building collapsed.
Adem Altan/AFP via Getty Images
Mesut Hancer holds the hand of his 15-year-old daughter Irmak in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, Feb. 7, 2023. Irmak died when a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Turkey’s southeast border with Syria, devastating the region. Kahramanmaras is close to the quake’s epicenter in Gaziantep.
AFP via Getty Images
]Rescue workers search for survivors in the rubble of a collapsed building in Jableh, a town in Syria’s Latakia province, Feb. 7, 2023. A massive rescue effort in Turkey and Syria is hampered by frigid weather in a race against time to find survivors under buildings flattened by powerful quakes that killed more than 5,000 people.
Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images
An earthquake survivor reacts as rescuers look for victims and other survivors in Hatay, Turkey, Feb. 7, 2023, the day after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southeast border with Syria.
Adem Altan/AFP via Getty Images
Civilians look for survivors under the rubble of collapsed buildings in Kahramanmaras on Feb. 7, 2023, the day after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southeast border with Syria.
Burak Kara/Getty Images
Smoke billows from the Iskenderun Port as rescue workers work at the scene of a collapsed building, Feb. 7, 2023, in Iskenderun, Turkey. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit near Gaziantep, Turkey, causing widespread destruction in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria.
Esra Hacioglu Karakaya/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Search and rescue efforts continue in the 8-storey apartment destroyed in the earthquake, in Diyarbakir, Turkey following 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes hit Turkey’s Kahramanmaras on Feb. 6, 2023.
Sezgin Pancar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Search and rescue operations are carried out in the wreckage in Hatay, after 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes hit Turkey’s Kahramanmaras, on Feb. 6, 2023.
Evrim Aydin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
A view of a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras, Turkey following 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes hit Kahramanmaras on Feb. 7, 2023.
Ilyas Akengin/AFP via Getty Images
Rescue workers and volunteers search for victims and survivors in the rubble of a collapsed building in Diyarbakir, Turkey, Feb. 6, 2023, after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southeastern border with Syria.
Can Erok/AFP via Getty Images
A woman cries as rescuers search for survivors through the rubble of a building that collapsed in Adana, Turkey, Feb. 6, 2023, after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southeastern border with Syria.
Ilyas Akengin/AFP via Getty Images
A man reacts as people search for survivors through the rubble in Diyarbakir, Turkey, Feb 6, 2023, after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southeastern border. The quake – followed by a smaller 7.5 magnitude earthquake – was Turkey’s biggest in at least a century.
Can Erok/AFP via Getty Images
Rescuers search for victims and survivors amidst the rubble of a building that collapsed in Adana, Turkey, Feb. 6, 2023, after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southeastern border with Syria.
Rami al Sayed/AFP via Getty Images
A man helps an injured resident slide out of the rubble of a collapsed building in Jindires, Syria, Feb. 6, 2023, after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the region.
Bakr Alkasem/AFP via Getty Images
A Syrian man weeps as he carries the body of his son who was killed in an earthquake in the town of Jindires, Syria, Feb. 6, 2023.
Rami al Sayed/AFP via Getty Images
Residents stand in front of a collapsed building in Jindires, Syria, Feb. 6, 2023, after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit the border of Turkey and Syria.
Anas Alkharboutli/dpa via Getty Images
Residents of Idlib, Syria, inspect a destroyed building after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit the border between Turkey and Syria, killing thousands and devastating the region.
Ugur Yildirim/dpa via Getty Images
People search for victims and survivors from the rubble of a building in Afrin, Syria, Feb. 6, 2023. Two massive earthquakes – at 7.8 magnitude and 7.5 magnitude respectively – struck in the border region of Turkey and Syria early Monday morning, killing thousands as they slept.
AFP via Getty Images
Rescue teams search for survivors under the rubble of a collapsed building in Aleppo, Syria, Feb. 6, 2023.
Omar Jah Kadour/AFP via Getty Images
Residents for victims and survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings, following an 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Sarmada, Syria, Feb. 6, 2023.
Omar Haj Kadour/AFP via Getty Images
Residents search for victims and survivors amidst the rubble of collapsed buildings in the village of Besnia, Syria, Feb. 6, 2022. The village is close to the Turkish-Syrian border, where a 7.8 magnitude – and later
a 7.5 magnitude – earthquake struck.
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