DIYARBAKIR/ANKARA:A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria early on Monday, killing hundreds of people as they slept, levelling buildings, and sending tremors that were felt as far away as Israel, Iraq, island of Cyprus and Egypt.
Turkish authorities scrambled rescue teams and supply aircraft to the region around the city of Kahramanmaras while declaring a “level 4 alarm” that calls for international assistance.
Early statements by officials suggested the death toll was at least 23 in Turkiye’s Malatya province, 17 in Sanliurfa, six in Diyarbakir and five more in Osmaniye. South across the border in Syria, state media said 42 had been killed.
“I have never felt anything like it in the 40 years I’ve lived,” said Erdem, a resident of the Turkish city of Gaziantep, near the quake’s epicentre, who declined to give his surname.
“We were shaken at least three times very strongly, like a baby in a crib.”
It was still too dark to see the nature of the damage, he added.
“Everybody is sitting in their cars, or trying to drive to open spaces away from buildings,” he said, speaking by telephone. “I imagine not a single person in Gaziantep is in their homes now.”
The tremor lasted about a minute and shattered windows, according to a Reuters witness in Diyarbakir, 350 km (218 miles)to the east, where a security official said at least 17 buildings collapsed.
Local authorities said 16 structures collapsed in Sanliurfa and 34 in Osmaniye.
Broadcasters TRT and Haberturk showed footage of people picking through building wreckage, moving stretchers and seeking survivors in Kahramanmaras, where it was still dark.
“Our primary job is to carry out the search and rescue work and to do that all our teams are on alert,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters.
