Finance
According to authorities, More than 1,000 people were killed and 6,530 others were injured in Turkey and Syria after a massive earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale struck a wide area near the two countries’ borders.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the death toll now stood at 912, while the number of the injured had increased to 5,383, reports the BBC.
According to the US Geological Survey, the tremor occurred at 4.17 a.m. at a depth of 17.9 km near the Turkish city of Gaziantep.
Suleymon Soylu, Turkey’s Interior Minister, told reporters that the ten cities of Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Hatay, Osmaniye, Adiyaman, Malatya, Sanliurfa, Adana, Diyarbakir, and Kilis had been affected.
While at least 23 people were killed in Malatya province, north-east of Gaziantep, 17 were killed in Sanliurfa province, to the east, the Minister said, adding that the remaining fatalities were reported in Diyarbakir and Osmaniye.
About 440 people were injured.
Meanwhile, Syrian state media reported that 50 people were killed as a result of the earthquake, which was felt in Lebanon and Cyprus.
The deaths were reported in the Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia regions, according to state media.
The initial quake was followed by another measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale at 4.26 a.m., according to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), according to Xinhua.
According to AFAD, at least 50 consecutive earthquakes with a maximum magnitude of 6.6 were recorded.
It added that widespread damage had been reported in at least ten provinces in southern and southeastern Turkey.
Turkey is located in one of the most active earthquake zones on the planet.
More than 17,000 people were killed in 1999 when a powerful earthquake shook the north-west of the country.
In a more recent quake, 117 people died when a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the city of Izmir on October 30, 2020.
Monday’s earthquake is believed to be the strongest in Turkey since the magnitude 7.9 temblor that hit eastern Erzincan province in 1939, which killed 33,000 people.
Source:IANS
