Devastating Human Toll as Earthquake Hits Turkey and Syria Deaths continue to climb and thousands of wounded seek care after one of strongest earthquakes in history and its continuing aftershocks. International community rushes to help. By Mohammad Al-Kassim/The Media Line A massive 7.8 earthquake struck Turkey and Syria at dawn Monday, killing more than 2,300 […]
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The Media Line: Devastating Human Toll as Earthquake Hits Turkey and Syria (VIDEO)
Devastating Human Toll as Earthquake Hits Turkey and Syria
Deaths continue to climb and thousands of wounded seek care after one of strongest earthquakes in history and its continuing aftershocks. International community rushes to help.
By Mohammad Al-Kassim/The Media Line
A massive 7.8 earthquake struck Turkey and Syria at dawn Monday, killing more than 2,300 people as they slept, flattening buildings and causing tremors felt throughout the region.
The US Geological Survey says the temblor, a magnitude 7.8, occurred at 4:17 a.m. local time at a depth of 17.9 kilometers near the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep.
The official death toll from the most powerful earthquake in nearly a century in Turkey is expected to climb higher as rescue efforts continue.
In Syria, a country already destroyed by more than 11 years of civil war, the Health Ministry said at least 850 people had been killed and thousands injured in the cities of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia.
Rescue teams in both countries are still trying to rescue those trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings.
The head of Syria’s National Earthquake Center, Raed Ahmed, called it “the biggest earthquake recorded in the history of the century.”
A second earthquake was recorded in southern Turkey on Monday afternoon, with a magnitude of 7.5.
In Turkey, the death toll stood at least 1,541 people in the late afternoon, the head of its disaster agency said.
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