The series of earthquakes that shook southeastern Turkey and neighboring countries on Monday has killed at least 76 people and injured 440 others, Turkish authorities reported. The figure is the first balance of the state agency AFAD for emergencies, updated for 3:30 GMT, but Rescue work continues in ten provinces and it is feared that the destruction is much greater.
In fact, the figures given by local authorities already exceed 80 deaths. So far, the governorate of Sanliurfa province, located southeast of the epicenter, has reported 18 deaths in 19 collapsed buildings, while in Osmaniyethe authorities speak of 34 collapsed buildings with at least 7 deaths.
In Malatya, some 130 buildings were destroyed, leaving a hundred injured and 23 dead, 28 deaths have been recorded so far in Adiyaman, to which are added six deaths in Diyarbakir, 250 kilometers east of the epicenter. There are still no death tolls for the two most affected provinces, Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras, nor for Hatay, where numerous citizens report on social media about landslides and trapped people.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu announced that The Turkish authorities have issued the grade 4 state of alarm, which includes the request for international aid. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote on his Twitter account: “We hope that we can overcome this catastrophe as soon as possible and with as little damage as possible.” The main earthquake this morning occurred at 01.17 GMT, with a magnitude of 7.4, at a depth of about 5 kilometers in the province of Kahramanmaras, located in the southeast of Turkey.
Strong aftershocks followed, affecting the provinces of Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Adiyaman, Sanliurfa, Malatya, Kilis, Diyarbakir, Osmaniye, Adana and Hatay. The affected area extends over more than 500 kilometers in southern Anatolia, where temperatures below zero and snowfall are recorded tonight, making the conditions of those who now spend the night outdoors difficult.
The earthquakes were also felt in northern Syria, in Lebanon, Israel and Georgia and the Turkish station NTV assures that 42 deaths have been registered in Syria. This is the largest earthquake recorded in Turkey since the one that occurred in 1999 in Izmit (7.6), which caused thousands of deaths, somewhat higher than that of Van in 2011 (7.2) which caused 600 deaths and that of Izmir in 2020 (7.0) which caused 115 deaths.
Source: Lasexta
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