DIYARBAKIR (Turkiye), Feb 7 — At least 2,379 people were killed and 14,483 others were injured in 10 provinces of Türkiye following two strong earthquakes that jolted the southern part of the country on Monday, Anadolu Agency reported Vice President Fuat Oktay said.
Early Monday morning, a powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Pazarcik district of Kahramanmaras province and strongly shook several other provinces, including Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Adana, Adiyaman, Malatya, Osmaniye, Hatay and Kilis.
Then at 1.24 pm (6.24pm Malaysia Time), a 7.6 magnitude quake centered in Kahramanmaras’s Elbistan district struck the region.
Oktay said a total of 7,840 people have been rescued from the rubble so far as 11,022 search and rescue teams are working in the field.
He said 338,000 earthquake victims have been housed in dormitories, universities and shelters.
There is currently no tsunami threat to Türkiye’s Eastern Mediterranean coasts, it reported Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) said.
The powerful quakes also devastated neighbouring Syria with government and rescue officials reported that nearly 1,300 people were killed and over 2,400 others were wounded in the quakes so far.
Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday’s quake was the “biggest disaster” since the 1939 Erzincan earthquake.
Türkiye will observe seven days of national mourning following the deadly earthquakes.
“Due to the earthquakes that took place in our country on Feb 6, a national mourning period was declared for seven days. Our flag will be hoisted at half-mast until sunset on Sunday, Feb 12, all over our country and in our foreign representations,” Anadolu Agency reported Erdogan said on Twitter.
