Ankara: At least 1,300 people died in a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake in southern Turkey and northern Syria in the early hours of Monday. This earthquake was so strong that its tremors were also felt in some other countries including Cyprus, Greece, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, UK, Iraq, and Georgia. About 3000 buildings were destroyed in Turkey due to the tremors of the earthquake. Hundreds of people are believed to be still trapped under the debris, due to which the death toll could rise further.
The earthquake felt as far away as Cairo, Lebanon, and Cyprus, centered north of the Turkish provincial capital Gaziantep. Turkey halted oil flow to the Ceyhan export terminal on the Mediterranean coast as a precaution, according to a Bloomberg report, although no leaks were found on pipelines supplying crude. The report quoted Okan Tuysuz, professor of geology at Istanbul Technical University, as saying that the earthquake was the most powerful in Turkey since 1939 when a powerful earthquake struck the eastern city of Erginkan and killed about 33,000 people. It was done.
Let us tell you that at least 386 people were killed in the collapse of buildings in Syria after a powerful earthquake in neighboring Turkey. In addition, at least 648 others were wounded in government-controlled parts of Syria, including the cities of Aleppo, Hama, Latakia, and Tartus. Syrian news agency SANA said the quake was felt along the coast from Latakia to Damascus in the west. Raed Ahmed, head of the center, told SANA that the earthquake was the most powerful since the establishment of the National Earthquake Center in 1995.
Significantly, Turkey is located in one of the most active seismic zones in the world, where there is a constant fear of major earthquake tremors. Earlier in 1999, powerful earthquakes in northwestern Turkey killed nearly 18,000 people, including nearly 1,000 in Istanbul. Deuz was one of the areas hit by the magnitude 7.4 earthquake, the worst to hit Turkey in decades. In January 2020, another 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Elazig, killing more than 40 people, and in October of the same year, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the Aegean Sea, killing 114 people.
