In Turkey, where the epicenter was registered, at least 2,379 people died, Vice President Fuat Otkay announced tonight, according to whom more than 14,483 people were injured.
According to Otkay, in total 7,840 people have been removed from the rubble and 4,748 buildings collapsedreported the AFP news agency.
Meanwhile, in Syria, the earthquake caused at least 1,444 deaths.
In areas controlled by the Government, the balance is “1,431 wounded and 711 dead in the provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama, Tartus,” said the Syrian Ministry of Health.
In rebel-held parts of the northwest, at least 733 people were killed and 2,100 wounded, according to the Syrian Civil Defense rescue group.
He earthquake was also felt in Lebanon, Cyprus, and even in Denmark and Greenlandwhere the tremors “were clearly recorded by the seismographs” of these countries.
He total death toll rises to at least 3,800after Turkey reviewed its balance sheet.
“The situation is very serious, many people are still under the rubble of buildings,” said surgeon Majid Ibrahim, from the Al Rahma hospital in the Syrian city of Darkush.
The tremor was felt at 04:17 (22:17 on Sunday in Argentina) and occurred at a depth of 17.9 kilometers, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
He epicenter was located in the district of Pazarcikin the southeast of Turkey, about 60 km from the Syrian border.
There were about fifty aftershocks, one of them measuring 7.5 magnitude, which struck the area nine hours later, four kilometers southeast of Ekinozu.
The balance of victims worsens with the hours, due to the high number of collapsed buildings in cities such as Adana, Gaziantep, Sanliurfa and Diayarbakir.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned AFP that the number of victims could be up to eight times higher.
Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, declared seven days of mourning for the victims. “Our flag will be flown at half mast until sundown on Sunday,” he said in a tweet.
Due to the time the earthquake occurred, at dawn, most people were sleeping.
According to the vice president oktay, at least three of the airports in the affected area, Hatay, Maras and Gaziantep, were closed.
The snow and storms that hit the region impeded traffic in others, including Diyarbakir.
The Syrian agency SANA released images of significant destruction in several cities, including Latakia, on the Mediterranean coast, where entire buildings collapsed.
Buildings also collapsed in Hama, in the center of the country, and in Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city in the north, where the famous citadel was damaged.
The most violent earthquake since 1999
The epicenter of the quake was located in the province of Kahramanmaras, 600 kilometers from the capital of Turkey, Ankara. According to the Kandilli Observatory of the Bosphorus University (Istanbul), It is the earthquake with the highest number of deaths since 1999 in Izmit, which left a total of 17,000 deaths.
It is very likely that the balance sheet will worsen quickly and the figures will increase by the minute due to collapsed buildings in the most affected cities such as Adana, Gaziantep, Sanliurfa and Diayarbakir, in the southeast of Turkey. For security reasons, the gas was cut off throughout the area, due to aftershocks and fears of explosions.
“My sister and her three children are under the rubble. Also her husband, her mother-in-law and her mother-in-law. Seven members of our family are under the rubble,” she explained to the news agency. AFP Muhittin Orakci, while watching rescue operations in front of a ruined building in Diyarbakir.
Source: Ambito
