Death jumps to 2,300 in Turkey Earthquake
2,300 people are dead after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria on Monday in turkey earthquake, officials said.
Both Turkey and Syria have declared a state of emergency.
The quake and its aftershocks have triggered a new humanitarian crisis in a region already shaken by more than a decade of civil war in Syria.
More than 2300 were reported dead and hundreds more injured in Turkey and Syria from the quake, The Associated Press reported. Hundreds of buildings collapsed in cities across the border region.
The 7.8 magnitude quake’s epicenter was centered about 33 kilometers (20 miles) from Gaziantep, according to the United States Geological Survey. It was centered 18 kilometers (11 miles) deep. Tremors from the magnitude 7.8 earthquake was felt in Syria and as far as Lebanon, Cyprus, Iraq and Egypt.
In a tweet, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed “full solidarity with our ally Turkey in the aftermath of this terrible turkey earthquake… NATO Allies are mobilizing support now.”
The AP, citing Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management agency, reported that at least 284 people were killed in seven Turkish provinces. The agency said 440 people were injured. The death toll in government-held areas of Syria climbed to 237 with more than 630 injured, the AP reported, citing Syrian state media. At least 120 people were killed in rebel-held areas, according to the White Helmets.
Monday’s quake is believed to be the strongest to hit Turkey since 1939, when an earthquake of the same magnitude killed 30,000 people, according to the USGS. Earthquakes of this magnitude are rare, with fewer than five occurring each year on average, anywhere in the world. Seven quakes with magnitude 7.0 or greater have struck Turkey in the past 25 years but Monday’s is the most powerful.
Karl Lang, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech University’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, told Today USA the area hit by the quake Monday is prone to seismic activity. “It’s a very large fault zone, but this is a larger earthquake than they’ve experienced any time in recent memory,” Lang said.
People said there were up to eight “very strong” aftershocks in under a minute after the 7.8 magnitude quake struck, causing belongings in his home to fall to the ground. Many of his neighbors had left their homes following the quake, People said.
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