Rescuers are racing to find survivors trapped beneath rubble on either side of the Turkey-Syrian border as the death toll from one of the strongest earthquakes to hit Turkey in 100 years rose beyond 500 people.
Nearly 3,000 others were injured as the 7.8-magnitude quake shook residents from their beds around 4 a.m. Monday morning, they were sending tremors as far away as Lebanon and Israel.
The earthquake’s epicenter was 23 kilometres (14.2 miles) east of Nurdagi, in Turkey’s Gaziantep province, at a depth of 24.1 kilometres (14.9 miles), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.
Video from the scene in Turkey showed day breaking over rows of collapsed buildings, some with apartments exposed to the elements as people huddled in the freezing cold beside them, waiting for help.
In Turkey, at least 284 people were killed and more than 2,300 injured, according to Vice President Fuat Oktay. In neighbouring Syria, at least 237 people died and more than 630 were wounded, Syrian state news agency SANA reported citing a Ministry of Health, the official. The deaths were reported in Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Tartus.
Syrian rescuers (White Helmets) and civilians search for victims and survivors amid the rubble of a collapsed building, in the rebel-held northern countryside of Syria’s Idlib province on the border with Turkey, early February 6, 2023.
