About 57 thousand people became victims of earthquakes in Turkey and Syria since February

Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay announced that after almost a month and a half after the strongest earthquakes in the last century in the southeast of the country (February 6-7), the number of victims has reached 49,589 people, of which 6,807 are foreigners, mostly Syrians.

The number of aftershocks exceeded 13,000.

About 120 thousand were injured and injured. About 26,000 buildings collapsed or were significantly damaged. Thousands of people were rescued from the rubble. More than 560 thousand people were evacuated.

Syrian authorities claim about 2,300 dead and 12,500 injured as a result of a series of earthquakes that were felt in the north of the country. But the SOHR monitoring group claims about 7,000 dead (including casualties in territories not controlled by Bashar al-Assad’s regime) and tens of thousands of wounded and injured.

Thus, in total, about 57,000 people became victims of earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.

Search and rescue operations have been completed. In Turkey alone, about 8,000 people were rescued from the rubble. Foreign missions have long since left the earthquake zone.

SERIES OF EARTHQUAKES 6-7.02.2023

February 6 in southern Turkey, near the border with Syria, was hit by an earthquake of magnitude 7.8. This was reported by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC). The epicenter of the tremors was located 37 kilometers from Gaziantep, which has a population of about 1.7 million people. The hearth lay at a depth of 10 kilometers.

After the first powerful earthquake, more than ten thousand repeated tremors followed. Moreover, tremors were felt not only in the south, but also in the center and east of Turkey.

CONSEQUENCES

Thousands of houses collapsed in ten Turkish provinces, including Adana, Adyanman, Diyaabakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malataya, Osmaniye, Sanliurfa, as well as in the Syrian city of Aleppo. The total number of people affected by the earthquake is about 13 million people.

Hatay airport in southeastern Turkey was put out of action due to the destruction of the runway.

Roads destroyed in southern Turkey. Thousands of cars were damaged.

THE BIGGEST EARTHQUAKES IN THE REGION IN THE PAST

According to the Turkish authorities, the current earthquake is the most destructive in the last century.

Previously, an earthquake in Turkey on December 27, 1939, when about 33 thousand people died, was considered as such.

In 1999, more than 17 thousand people became victims of the earthquake in Izmit. In the same year, the Dzyuja earthquake claimed the lives of almost 900 people.