The most powerful earthquake in nearly a century struck Turkey and Syria early Monday, killing over 1,500 people in their sleep, levelling buildings and causing tremors felt as far away as Iraq.
Another 7.5-magnitude earthquake hit southeast Turkey this evening, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Details of casualties in the second earthquake are yet to come in.
The second shallow quake hit at 1:24 pm local time, 4 km south-southeast of the town of Ekinozu.
The first 7.8-magnitude quake wiped out entire sections of major Turkish cities in a restless region filled with millions of people who have fled the civil war in Syria and other conflicts.
The head of Syria’s National Earthquake Centre, Raed Ahmed, told pro-government radio that this was “the biggest earthquake recorded in the history of the centre”.
At least 1,500 people have been killed after two powerful earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria within the space of 12 hours. The death toll is expected to rise, with search and rescue operations under way across the region as many buildings have collapsed and there are thought to be many people trapped in the rubble.
- Official figures from Turkey say 1,014 people were killed there, 5,383 were injured, and 2,818 buildings had collapsed. Syria’s health ministry said that more than 326 people had been killed and 1,042 injured. In addition to those figures, the White Helmets rescue service in the north-west of Syria in areas not controlled by the government put their death toll at 221, giving a total of 1,561 confirmed dead.
- More than 10 search and rescue teams from the European Union have been mobilised in the wake of the earthquake that has hit Turkey, a spokesperson for the European Commission said. The US, UK, Israel, Russia and China are among other nations to have made public offers of assistance.
- The first quake struck as people slept, and measured magnitude 7.8, one of the most powerful quakes in the region in at least a century. It was felt as far away as Cyprus and Cairo. The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said preliminary data showed the second large quake measured 7.7 magnitude, and was 67km (42 miles) north-east of Kahramanmaraş, Turkey, at a depth of 2km. There have been more than a 100 smaller aftershocks registered by seismologists.
- The first quake had its epicentre near Gaziantep, and it has damaged the historic castle there which had been in use since Roman times.
- Turkey’s armed forces have set up an air corridor to enable search and rescue teams to reach the zone affected.
- Turkey’s Akkuyu nuclear power plant, which is under construction, was not damaged by the earthquake, an official from the Russian company building the plant said.
- The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has called for increased funding for humanitarian aid in Syria, saying that many people in the north-west of the country have already been displaced up to 20 times, and that medical care in the region was “strained beyond capacity, even before this tragedy”.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was concerned about areas in Turkey from which there had been no news following the earthquake.
- In 1999, a tremor of similar magnitude to today’s quakes in Turkey devastated Izmit killing more than 17,000. Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has described Monday as the worst disaster for the country since 1939, when an earthquake killed over 32,000 people and injured more than 100,000.
