A Magnitude 7.8 Earthquake Struck Turkey And Syria And More Than 11,000 People Are Dead
The earthquake is one of the deadliest natural disasters in over a century, and the death toll is still increasing.
The death toll has gone to more than 11,000 people have died after an earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on Monday Feb. 6.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck at 4:17 a.m. local time in the south-eastern Turkish city of Gaziantep and felt throughout northwest Syria.
A second earthquake and multiple aftershocks were felt throughout the day and endangered rescue missions.
Turkey’s disaster agency has reported 9,057 deaths and Syrian authorities have reported at least 2,612 deaths, according to a live update from the New York Times.
Thousands of people have been injured and WHO officials expect the number of casualties to rise by “eight fold”.
“We always see the same thing with earthquakes, unfortunately, which is that the initial reports of the numbers of people who have died or who have been injured will increase quite significantly in the week that follows,” WHO’s senior emergency official told AFP.
Aerial views show cities and villages completely destroyed.
Thinking of the people of Turkey and Syria after todays tragic earthquake. Devastating scenes 🤲🏻. pic.twitter.com/g5DNfbKMUx
— Shabnam Nasimi (@NasimiShabnam) February 6, 2023
Videos shared on social media show the moment entire buildings collapse to the ground.
“It was like the apocalypse,” a Syrian man told Reuters.
“There were 12 families under there. Not a single one came out. Not one,” another man from Aleppo, Syria said.
The disaster comes as Syria continues to face a humanitarian crisis from an ongoing civil war.
The European Union and the UN have mobilized and sent rescue teams to Turkey and Syria.
However, weather conditions have slowed down the rescue process.
“The weather conditions and the scale of the disaster make it hard for our teams to reach the region…our helicopters could not take off today due to weather conditions,” UNICEF said in a statement.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has announced a seven-day mourning period and a three-month emergency state for 10 Turkish provinces.
