Difficult conditions and freezing temperatures hampered rescue efforts overnight in Turkey and Syria, one day after a powerful earthquake struck the region, killing at least 4,300 people.
As the scale of the devastation from the 7.8 magnitude tremor continued to unfold, the World Health Organization warned the number of casualties could exceed 20,000.
International rescue missions rushed to both countries and worked through the night to find survivors on Tuesday.
The early-morning quake and aftershocks, including a 7.5 magnitude tremor, wiped out entire apartment blocks in Turkey and heaped more destruction on Syrian communities already devastated by over a decade of war:
Almost 13,000 rescue workers leave Istanbul for affected areas – local media
As of 6 am, early 13,000 rescue workers, many of them volunteers, had left Istanbul in the last 12 hours, according to the news organisation Sabah, which cites the governor of Istanbul.
The death toll from the two quakes has risen to more than 4,300 according to government figures. At least 2,921 have been confirmed dead in Turkey, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said, and 1,444 in Syria, according to figures from the Damascus Government and rescue workers. Thousands more are injured, and the death toll is expected to rise.
In 1999, when a tremor of similar magnitude hit the heavily populated eastern Marmara Sea region near Istanbul, it killed more than 17,000. The WHO warned that the toll from Monday’s earthquakes could pass 20,000.
İstanbul Valisi Ali Yerlikaya: 06.00 itibarıyla İstanbul'umuzdan; 73 uçak ile 12 bin 752 personelimiz ve AFAD Gönüllülerimiz, başta Hatay olmak üzere deprem bölgesine sevk edildi. pic.twitter.com/4YHysJQvT5
— Sabah (@sabah) February 7, 2023
Many are bound for Hatay, where, according to reports, there is growing anger at the lack of assistance for people trapped under the rubble.
US-Turkey thinktank The SETA Foundation at Washington DC, posted this video of the large numbers of volunteers arriving at Istanbul airport overnight:
Charlotte Graham-McLay
New Zealand’s government will provide NZ$1.5m (US$950,000) to the relief efforts in Turkey and Syria, foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta said.
The contribution via the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies will include $1m for Turkey and $500,000 for Syria, and will be used for “essential relief items” such as food, tents, blankets, and medical support, Mahuta said in a statement.
She added: “Officials will continue to monitor the humanitarian needs and assess options for further support.”
Soylu has also posted this startling video of what the earthquake has done to a road:
The road between Gaziantep and Adana appears to have completely collapsed #TurkeyQuake pic.twitter.com/d1P40tSBdd
— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) February 7, 2023
In Hatay, there is “huge anger” over the lack of emergency response personnel, Ragıp Soylu, the Turkey bureau chief for Middle East Eye, reports:
Kahramanmaraş'ta yakınları enkaz altında kalan insanlar isyan ediyor
"Yardım edin, kimse yok mu? İş işten geçmeden yardıma gelin ne olur? AFAD varmış, devlet varmış, hani devlet!"
🎥 @evrenselgzt #hatayyardimbekliyor #deprem pic.twitter.com/Ez3r1MXvVF
— Odak Dünyam (@odakdunyam) February 6, 2023
Kahramanmaraş, Hayrullah Mahallesi, Pırlanta Apt. Enkazda Yangın Olduğu Halde İçeride Bilinci Açık Yaralılar Oldugu Halde Müdahale Edilmiyor @nevsinmengu @cuneytozdemir @_ElifYilmaz_ @fatihaltayli pic.twitter.com/ma9C7llYSt
— Gunes Turac (@GunesTurac) February 7, 2023
@AFADBaskanlik Besni acil yardım lütfen pic.twitter.com/34hDdrjzPI
— Mehmet Ormankiran (@MOrmankiran) February 6, 2023
The first quake struck as people slept, and measured magnitude 7.8, one of the most powerful quakes in the region in at least a century. It was felt as far away as Cyprus and Cairo. The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said preliminary data showed the second large quake measured 7.7 magnitude, and was 67km (42 miles) north-east of Kahramanmaraş, Turkey, at a depth of 2km.
In 1999, when a tremor of similar magnitude hit the heavily populated eastern Marmara Sea region near Istanbul, it killed more than 17,000.
The death toll could rise to over 20,000, the World Health Organization’s senior emergency officer for Europe, Catherine Smallwood, said. “There’s continued potential of further collapses to happen so we do often see in the order of eight fold increases on the initial numbers,” she told AFP, speaking when the estimated toll stood at 2,600. “We always see the same thing with earthquakes, unfortunately, which is that the initial reports of the numbers of people who have died or who have been injured will increase quite significantly in the week that follows,” Smallwood added.
US President Joe Biden spoke with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday to offer condolences and reaffirm Washington’s readiness to assist in rescue efforts, the White House said. Biden “noted that US teams are deploying quickly to support Turkish search and rescue efforts and coordinate other assistance that may be required by people affected by the earthquakes, including health services or basic relief items,” the White House said in a statement.
Syria’s envoy to the UN said Monday that aid sent after the earthquake will reach all its population, even though Damascus does not control all of its territory. Asked if aid donated to Syria – some areas are held by rebels – would reach all of the population, Syria’s UN envoy Bassam Sabbagh said it would. “We assure the UN that we are ready to help and to coordinate to provide assistance to all Syrians in all territory of Syria,” Sabbagh said after meeting with UN secretary general António Guterres to convey a Syrian government request for aid. “We are ready to help also those who wanted to provide the help in all Syria,” he stressed.
More than 10 search and rescue teams from the European Union have been mobilised to help with the recovery, a spokesperson for the European Commission said. The US, UK, Canada, Israel, Russia and China are among other nations to have offered assistance and calls have emerged for the international community to relax some of the political restrictions on aid entering north-west Syria, the country’s last rebel-held enclave and one of the areas worst hit by the earthquake.
Prisoners mutinied in a northwestern Syria prison Monday after the earthquake, with at least 20 escaping the jail holding mostly Islamic State group members, a source at the facility told AFP.
There have been more than a 100 smaller aftershocks registered by seismologists.
Turkey’s armed forces have set up an air corridor to enable search and rescue teams to reach the zone affected.
Turkey’s Akkuyu nuclear power plant, which is under construction, was not damaged by the earthquake, an official from the Russian company building the plant said.
The Swedish presidency of the European Union has activated the integrated political crisis response (IPCR) to coordinate EU support measures in response to the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, the EU Council said in a statement. The IPCR arrangements strengthen the EU’s ability to take rapid decisions when facing major cross-sectoral crises requiring a response at the EU level.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has called for increased funding for humanitarian aid in Syria, saying that many people in the north-west of the country have already been displaced up to 20 times, and that medical care in the region was “strained beyond capacity, even before this tragedy”.
The partial destruction of a Roman-era castle in the Turkish city of Gaziantep has led to fears that two earthquakes that struck on Monday may have damaged other priceless monuments in Turkey and Syria, areas rich in cultural heritage.
Another earthquake has hit central Turkey, Reuters reports, citing the Euro-Mediterranean Seismic Centre, which says that the quake measured 5.6.
A series of aftershocks are expected to follow the first earthquake.
According to the earthquake magnitude scale used by Michigan Technological University, 5.6 is likely to cause “slight damage to buildings and other structures”.
We’ll have more on this shortly.
