Over 3,600 people were killed and thousands of structures were destroyed on February 6 when a powerful earthquake slammed Turkey and Syria. Rescuers were forced to dig with their bare hands for survivors.
After the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, which struck while most people were still asleep and in the midst of frigid weather that has impeded relief efforts, dozens of countries pledged aid.
Apartment complexes with multiple floors and occupants were among the 5,606 buildings in Turkey reduced to ruins, while Syria reported dozens of collapses and damage to archaeological monuments in Aleppo.
Raed Ahmed, the director of Syria’s National Earthquake Center, referred to it as the strongest earthquake recorded in the center’s history.
Numerous aftershocks, including one of 7.5 magnitudes that rocked the area on February 6 in the middle of search and rescue operations, were caused by the first earthquake.
Rescuers were working through the night to try and extract people from the rubble of a fallen seven-story building in the city of Sanliurfa in southeast Turkey.
Fearful city dwellers were preparing to spend the night on the streets, huddling around fires for warmth despite the low temperatures.
Mustafa Koyuncu was nearby, huddled in his immobile car with his wife and their five kids, frightened to move.
Apocalypse
The government and rescuers estimated that 1,300 people were killed throughout Syria.
Another 2,316 fatalities were reported by Turkish emergency services, bringing the overall death toll to almost 3,600.
According to the emergency services, 13,293 injuries and 7,340 rescues have taken place throughout Turkey to date.
Turkey proclaimed seven days of national mourning.
A winter snowfall that coated main roadways in ice and snow and made rescue efforts difficult proved to hinder. Officials reported that the earthquake rendered three of the region’s major airports inoperable, greatly hampering the delivery of critical relief.
The first earthquake on February 6 occurred at 4:17 a.m. (0117 GMT) near the city of Gaziantep, Turkey, which has a population of around two million, at a depth of roughly 18 kilometers (11 miles).
According to Denmark’s geological agency, tremors began to be felt on Greenland’s east coast about eight minutes after the major quake hit Turkey.
According to the disaster management organization, more than 12,000 individuals were hurt in Turkey, and 3,411 people were hurt in Syria.
People underneath debris
A Syrian earthquake survivor named Osama Abdel Hamid claimed that his family was asleep when the shaking started.
Immediately, condolence messages and assistance offers were issued from the United States, the European Union, and Russia.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, made the offer to Turkey, whose combat drones are assisting Kyiv in fighting the Russian invasion, to give them the required assistance.
Images on Turkish television showed rescuers sifting through the ruins in practically every neighborhood in the major cities that run along the Syrian border.
Near the epicenter of the earthquake, between Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep, large sections of cities lay in ruins as snow began to accumulate.
In the province of Maltaya, a well-known mosque from the 13th century partially fell together with a 14-story structure with 28 flats that housed 92 people.
Power shortages
Aleppo, Latakia, Hama, and Tartus, where Russia is renting a naval facility, were among the areas where damage was reported by the Syrian health ministry.
Fearful locals reportedly fled their houses when the ground shook, according to AFP correspondents in northern Syria.
Buildings in Aleppo, Syria’s pre-war commercial center, frequently collapsed due to the deteriorated infrastructure, which had been harmed by a lack of wartime control, even before the tragedy.
As a precaution, officials turned off the natural gas and electricity in the area. They also closed the schools for two weeks.
Turkey is located in one of the seismically active regions of the planet.
The last 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the nation killed 33,000 people in the eastern province of Erzincan in 1939.
A 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck the Turkish area of Duzce in 1999 resulted in the deaths of over 17,000 people.
Experts have long warned that Istanbul, a 16 million-person megalopolis full of unstable homes, might be completely destroyed by a powerful earthquake.
News Mania Desk
