ADANA, Turkey (AP) – Rescue workers rushed Tuesday to find survivors among the rubble of thousands of buildings destroyed by the magnitude-7.8 earthquake and multiple aftershocks that hit eastern Turkey and neighbouring Syria.
Attempts to reach the survivors were also hampered by sub-zero temperatures and nearly 200 aftershocks, making searching through unstable structures dangerous.
In the areas where the team was working, cheers could erupt through the night as survivors were pulled from the rubble.
The quake was centred in Turkey’s southeastern province of Kahramanmaras, flooding the streets with residents of Damascus and Beirut and felt as far away as Cairo.
Thousands of people took refuge in sports centres and exhibition halls in Turkey’s Hatay province, while others spent the night outside, huddled around fires in blankets. Turkey has a large number of troops in its border areas with Syria and has tasked them with assisting relief efforts, including setting up tents for the homeless and a field hospital in Hatay province. Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said an Ankara-based humanitarian aid brigade and he had also deployed eight military search and rescue teams.
A naval vessel docked at the port of Iskenderun in the province on Tuesday, transporting survivors in need of medical care to the nearby city of Mersin after a hospital collapsed. Thick black smoke rose from another area of the port, and firefighters had yet to extinguish a fire under a shipping container that had capsized in the earthquake.
In the Turkish capital Gaziantep, about 33 kilometres from the epicentre, people fled to shopping malls, stadiums, mosques and community centres. Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said the total number of deaths in Turkey had risen to 3,419, with a further 20,534 injured.
The death toll in government-held areas of Syria rose to 812, with about 1,450 injured, according to the health ministry. In the rebel-held northwest of the country, the opposition Syrian Civil Defense or White Helmets, the medical group leading the relief effort, said at least 790 people were killed and more than 2,200 injured.
This brings the total to 5,021.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif will visit Ankara on Wednesday to express his condolences and solidarity, according to a statement from Islamabad. US President Joe Biden called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to express his condolences and support to NATO allies. The White House said it was sending a search and rescue team to assist Turkey’s efforts.
According to Orhan Tatar, an official of Turkey’s Disaster Management Agency, more than 7,800 people were rescued in 10 provinces.
The area lies on a major fault line and is frequently shaken by earthquakes. In 1999, a similarly powerful earthquake hit northwestern Turkey, killing about 18,000 people. The US Geological Survey measured a magnitude 7.8 quake at a depth of 18 kilometres (11 miles) on Monday. A few hours later, another 7.5 magnitude earthquake occurred more than 100 kilometers away, probably triggered by the first.
A second explosion caused a high-rise apartment building in the Turkish city of Şanlıurfa to fall into the street, causing bystanders to scream, according to video from the scene.
Thousands of buildings have reportedly collapsed in areas ranging from the Syrian cities of Aleppo and Hama to Diyarbakir, Turkey, more than 330 kilometres (200 miles) northeast.
