Early on Monday, Century slammed Turkey and Syria, killing more than 1,400 people while they slept, razing buildings, and generating tremors that were felt as far away as Greenland.
In a region where millions of people have left the civil war in Syria and other crises, the 7.8-magnitude nighttime tremor, which was followed hours later by a slightly lesser one, completely destroyed portions of major Turkish cities.
Raed Ahmed, the director of Syria’s National Earthquake Center, referred to it as ‘the strongest earthquake recorded in the center’s history.’
According to official media and medical sources, at least 560 people perished across Syria’s rebel and government-controlled regions.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reported that 912 more people perished in Turkey. His handling of one of the worst disasters during his 20 years in office may have an impact on his chances of being re-elected in the polls that are scheduled for May.
More than 50 aftershocks, including one with a magnitude of 7.5, were felt in the area on Monday afternoon as search and rescue operations were in progress.
The second jolt was felt by AFP reporters and witnesses as far away as the Turkish capital Ankara and the city of Irbil in Iraqi Kurdistan.
In their pyjamas, shocked survivors in Turkey hurried out onto the snow-covered streets to observe rescuers sifting through the wreckage of destroyed homes, reported AFP.
A winter snowfall that coated main roadways in ice and snow and made rescue efforts difficult proved hindering. Officials reported that the earthquake rendered three of the region’s major airports inoperable, greatly hampering the delivery of critical relief.
‘We hope that we will get over this calamity together as quickly as possible and with the least harm,’ Erdogan said in a message of sympathy and call for togetherness.
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