Rescue teams search for thousands of missing people among the rubble of the 2,800 buildings destroyed by the earthquake, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale
More than 1,200 people have died and around 5,900 have been injured after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck southern Turkey, along the border with Syria. It is the latest assessment of a catastrophe that the Turkish president describes as the most serious since another earthquake struck the country in 1939. Rescue teams are working against the clock to try to rescue the survivors who remain under the rubble of some 2,800 buildings that have collapsed. The number of missing is in the thousands. The figures do not stop rising and the images that arrive from the Turkish and Syrian cities show great destruction.
The epicenter of the earthquake, which lasted about 30 seconds, was registered at 4:17 local time (two less in the Iberian Peninsula) 33 kilometers south of the Turkish city of Gaziantep, in the province of Kahramanmaras, 600 kilometers southeast of the capital Ankara and only 60 from the Syrian border. The mayor of Kahramanmaras, Hayrettin Gungor, has asked his citizens “not to crowd and not to disturb the traffic.” The tremor has been noted in Lebanon, Cyprus or Cairo. Italy has activated the tsunami alert.
The Turkish Disaster and Emergency Authority has sent its teams to the area and says that there are at least 10 cities affected, raises the alarm level to the highest and calls for international help. The bad weather -intense rain and sleet- makes rescue work difficult and from cities like Istanbul and Ankara flights to the East are cut off due to the storm. The Turkish government has issued an international alarm asking for help. “We are receiving notifications from many places, our rescue teams have been dispatched to the area, cargo planes are being prepared and dispatched,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said. For his part, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has wished his “best wishes” to those affected by reporting the coordination of his emergency services.
It is more complicated to know what is happening in northern Syria, but here the death toll has already risen to more than a hundred and the tremor has affected the provinces of Hama, Aleppo and Latakia. A spokesman for the Syrian Ministry of Health has indicated that the balance, which is provisional, includes victims from several cities such as the capital, Aleppo, in the north of the country; Hama, 140 kilometers south of the capital; or Latakia, in the west, according to what the Sana news agency has learned. “All public and private hospitals are on alert. The wounded continue to arrive in waves,” Aleppo Health Director Ziad Hage Taha told Reuters.
In addition, a general emergency and supply plan has been implemented in the affected places, while medical teams, including ambulances and mobile clinics, have been dispatched from various regions. The country’s authorities have indicated that there are several dozen residential buildings, located in various neighborhoods, which have collapsed as a result of the earthquakes.
In all the affected areas of Syria, many buildings have been rendered useless after the earthquake damage has been the last chapter of destruction after twelve years of a bloody civil war. The armed conflict has divided the country since 2011 between territories under government control (66%), Kurdish militias (25%) and rebel groups (9%), making it extremely difficult to count the deaths of the earthquake. President Bashar al-Assad is holding an emergency cabinet meeting with him to decide next steps. The White Helmets, members of the Syrian civil defense, declared a state of emergency in the northwest, controlled by the opposition. The voluntary organization calls on humanitarian organizations to “intervene quickly”.
Idlib, Syria – civilians and White Helmets climb through the snow and ice over destroyed residential buildings to pull earthquake victims from the rubble. The initial quake was a 7.8 magnitude with an aftershock of 6.7 causing landslides and destruction. pic.twitter.com/uKpFnATMug
Muhammad Najem (@muhammadnajem20) February 6, 2023
Turkey, the meeting point of the Anatolian and Eurasian tectonic plates, is one of the most active seismic zones in the world. The last major earthquake on Turkish territory occurred on August 17, 1999 in Izmit, in the northwestern region of Anatolia, with a magnitude of 7.6. So it left more than 17,000 dead. On the other hand, the director general of the National Seismic Center, Raed Ahmed, explained to Sana that this earthquake is “the strongest” since 1995, when the national seismic monitoring network was installed.
Dispatch of Spanish rescue teams
On the other hand, the European Civil Protection Mechanism has requested the urgent dispatch of help in terms of urban search and rescue. The General Directorate of Civil Protection and Emergencies of the Ministry of the Interior has responded to this request requesting the urgent activation of the Military Emergency Unit and the Immediate Response Team of the Community of Madrid, the two organizations that have these search and urban rescue in Spain certified by the European Mechanism.
At the same time, efforts are being made to have air transport available as soon as possible to be able to deploy these units on the ground. The General Directorate of Civil Protection and Emergencies has called an emergency meeting with the Ministry of Defence, the Department of National Security and the Community of Madrid to coordinate this immediate dispatch to Turkey of search and rescue teams in urban areas.
The meeting will be attended by representatives of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, of the Military Emergency Unit.
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