One of the worst recorded in history.
The strong earthquake of magnitude 7.7 that shook Turkey this morning has left almost 1,400 dead, at least 912 missing and more than 5,300 injured in that country alone, according to the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in an assessment of the damage .
In Syria, another 473 deaths and 1,382 injuries have been reported so far. In areas controlled by the Syrian government, 326 deaths have been reported, in addition to more than a thousand injuries, while in areas controlled by the opposition, there are 147 fatalities and more than 300 injuries.
This earthquake, according to Erdogan, is the second strongest that has shaken the country in the last century, and because rescue work is underway, he did not want to give a total number of possible victims.
“It is the second strongest since the 1939 Erzincan earthquake. According to the latest assessments it is 7.7. There is serious damage also in neighboring areas of Syria,” the Turkish president said.
The low temperatures and the snow in the area, where there are also mountainous territories that are difficult to access, complicate the rescue tasks.
Erdogan noted that more than 2,800 homes had collapsed or been seriously damaged and that 2,470 people had been rescued alive from the rubble.
The shock brought thousands of people out of bed at 1:17 GMT on both sides of the border, with the quake knocking down buildings in a vast area of hundreds of kilometers stretching from northern Syria, from cities like Aleppo to the southeast. Turkey, where the largest Turkish city in the region, Diyarbakir, has been affected.
The epicenter of the quake was found in Pazarcik in the province of Kahramanmaras, according to the Turkish emergency service Afad, although the Kandilli seismic observatory places it in Sofalici, in the neighboring province of Gaziantep, about 40 kilometers further south.
The force of the earthquake was placed at 7.8 by the United States Geological Survey, while Afad establishes it at 7.7.
One of the symbols of the enormous destruction of the quake is the historic Roman castle of Gaziantep, which had stood for more than 1,700 years and has been leveled by the quake.
In Syria, embroiled in more than a decade of civil war, the affected area is divided between government-controlled territory and the last opposition-controlled enclave of the country, which is surrounded by Russian-backed government forces.
Thus, the earthquake has left at least 473 dead and 1,382 injured, mostly in areas controlled by the government of President Bashar al-Assad, where 326 deaths and 1,042 injuries have been recorded so far, according to the latest count offered by the SANA official news agency.
Separately, in the northwestern province of Idlib, the country’s last opposition stronghold, and in parts of neighboring Aleppo that are also beyond Damascus’ control, another 147 people have been killed and more than 340 injured, according to reports. the White Helmets rescue group.
These opposition areas border Turkey and are closer to the epicenter, so the difference in the balance could be due to their lesser ability to coordinate the count as there is no single government authority in charge of rescue operations.
EFE