A deadly earthquake kills more than 2,200 people in Turkey and Spain
A deadly earthquake killed more than 2,200 people in Turkey and Northwest Syria. Thousands of people were also reportedly injured.
Aside from death tolls, apartment blocks have been flattened, causing more destruction in Syrian cities which have already been devastated by years of war.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said the earthquake would only add to the suffering of millions of Syrians who are already enduring a humanitarian crisis due to the civil war.
Also, the earthquake has caused poor internet connections and damaged roads between some of the worst-hit cities in Turkey’s south.
So far, this is already the highest recorded death toll from an earthquake in Turkey since 1999, when a tremor of similar magnitude devastated the heavily populated eastern Marmara Sea region near Istanbul, killing more than 17,000.
The magnitude 7.8 quake, which hit before sunrise in bitter winter weather, was the worst to strike Turkey this century. It was followed in the early afternoon by another large quake of magnitude 7.7.
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Reports from the Earthquake
A Turkish woman with a broken arm and injuries to her face said that they were shaken like a cradle. There were nine of them at home when the earthquake occurred.
“Two sons of mine are still in the rubble, I’m waiting for them,” she added.
Her home which is a seven-story block where she had lived in Diyarbakir in Southeast Turkey has become wreckage as a result of the earthquake.
Also, two residents of the city, which has been heavily damaged in the war, said the buildings had fallen in the hours after the quake, which was also felt in Cyprus and Lebanon.
In addition, figures from the Damascus government and the United Nations reported that the death toll stood at 1,498 in Turkey, and at least 716 people were killed in Syria.
Footage circulated on Twitter showed two neighboring buildings collapsing one after the other in Syria’s Aleppo, filling the street with billowing dust.
President Tayyip Erdogan, who is preparing for a tough election in May, called it a historic disaster and the worst earthquake to hit Turkey since 1939 but said authorities were doing all they could.
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