Turkey, Syria Earthquake Kills Thousands

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

ISTANBUL (Worthy News) – At least some 4,000 people were killed Monday in southeastern Turkey and neighboring Syria after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, one of the most powerful quakes to hit the region in at least a century.

Many more were injured, and the toll was due to rise as rescue workers and residents frantically searched for survivors.

People lay beneath crushed city buildings on both sides of the border. The quake, centered north of the city of Gaziantep, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) from Syria’s frontier, and was reportedly felt as far away as Israel and Egypt.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on the social networking site Twitter that “search and rescue teams were immediately dispatched” to the areas hit by the quake.

The quake struck at 04:17 am local time at a depth of about 17.9 kilometers (11 miles), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.

A 6.7-magnitude aftershock struck less than 15 minutes later. There were also reports of tremors in Greece and Cyprus.

Turkey’s emergency management ministry, the AFAD, said the initial quake first rocked the town of Pazarcık, an hour’s drive north of Gaziantep, a key industrial city in southern Turkey.

HIT HARD

The town of Nurdağı, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest, was the epicenter of the second tremor, officials said.

Governor Davut Gul tweeted that the earthquake was “felt severely” in Gaziantep, a southeastern provincial capital of two million.

He urged people to wait outside and to leave the main roads empty.

Recent quakes in the region have caused landslides that might have contributed to fatalities before, the USGS warned.

Initial footage showed destroyed residential buildings in especially nearby Turkish cities and northern Syria.

Video of the aftermath made clear that residents were trapped under rubble.

There was brief joy when a little girl was rescued beneath the rubble in Syria, reporters saw. “Look at me it is over,” a rescue man told the tearful girl.

But mostly, there was death and destruction.

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