A 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria early on Monday morning was felt in Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel, according to media reports.
An Al Arabiya reporter said some residents in Lebanon were forced to evacuate their homes when the quake hit.
At around 3 a.m. local time in Lebanon, residents were startled awake due to the aftershocks.
The National Center of Geophysics in Bhannes reported that a 4.8-magnitude earthquake hit the sea between Lebanon and Cyprus – 160 kilometres away from the Lebanese coast.
Footage from a grocery store in Lebanon showed products splattered across the floor after the tremors were felt for about 40 seconds, reports said.
The Lebanese interior ministry denied rumours circulating online that claimed that buildings were damaged in the country, adding that the footage originated in Syria and not Lebanon, Al Arabiya reported.
Takbeers were heard from mosques after the quake hit, according to an Al Arabiya reporter.
Lebanon is still reeling from a deadly blast in August 2020 and from a dire economic crisis that has seen the country’s currency collapse.
“I was sleeping, and I felt the bed shaking at around 3:30 a.m. and the chandelier was moving back and forth,” Lebanese citizen, Iman, told Al Arabiya English. “I was so scared because it went on for a while,” she said, adding that the stormy weather that Lebanon was currently experiencing worsened the experience.
“It was so scary and it lasted for a while,” Jenan told Al Arabiya English, while another, who wished to remain anonymous, said that she “woke up feeling that the whole world was shaking.”
Lebanese also took to social media post-earthquake to share their thoughts and fear about what they had experienced.
“My building wouldn’t stop shaking. As I was praying with traumatized anxiety, all I could think about was how our Lebanon just cannot handle more damage and suffering. We simply cannot anymore,” Lynn Zovighian said on Twitter.
“Indescribable moments of fear,” Twitter user Mahassen Moursel said.
“We are still living a trauma,” Sabine Jean Youssef said.
At least 284 people died in Turkey and an estimated 230 lost their lives in Syria when the earthquake hit southeast Turkey and Syria, forcing hundreds into panic and onto the streets. The death toll is expected to keep rising as rescue workers continue to search for survivors underneath the rubble of collapsed buildings.
There were at least 6 aftershocks after the initial tremor.
The quake was centred north of the city of Gaziantep, 90 kilometres away from the Syrian border.
News from English.alalabiya
