People running through rubble, screams as buildings collapse. Panic and hope to get out of this situation alive. These are some of the very hard moments that Turkish television has collected when it broadcast live the immediate effects of the strong 7.8 magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks that have left, to date, more than 1,500 dead and thousands injured in Turkey and Syria. Specifically, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pointed out that at least 912 people have died and 5,385 have been injured due to the quake, which he has described as “the biggest disaster since the 1939 earthquake”.
Erdogan has stated that so far 2,470 people have been rescued, while has confirmed that more than 2,800 buildings have collapsed. The Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) has pointed out that close to a hundred aftershocks have been registered. The governor of the province of Kahramanmaras, Omer Faruk Coskun, has stressed, however, that “it is not possible to give an exact number of deaths and injuries at this time” and added that “the damage is serious.”
On the other hand, the earthquake has also left 371 dead and 1,089 injured in areas controlled by the Syrian Government, according to data published by the Syrian Ministry of Health on its website. Thus, he has detailed that the data correspond to the provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Tartus, at the same time that it has affected that the data is not definitive. “The emergency management room of the Ministry of Health is analyzing the situation in real time and proactively. The ongoing response is being coordinated with the provinces,” he said in his statement.
To these figures we must add about 220 dead and some 420 wounded in the areas controlled by the rebels. in the provinces of Idlib and Aleppoin the northwest of the Arab country, as indicated by the Syrian Civil Defense, known as ‘white helmets’, through their Twitter account, where they lamented “the catastrophe and devastation” caused by the earthquake.
Source: Lasexta
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