Two powerful earthquakes on Feb. 6 left at least 2,921 people dead in southern Turkey and at least 1,451 dead in northern Syria, according to local authorities in both countries.
The death toll, however, is expected to continue to climb as emergency workers struggle to pull survivors from under the rubble of collapsed buildings.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared a seven-day period of national mourning.
The first earthquake, measuring 7.8 magnitude, struck at 4:14 a.m. local time. Its epicenter was in the Pazarcik district of Turkey’s southern Kahramanmaras Province, according to the nation’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).
In addition to Kahramanmaras, the initial quake affected Turkey’s southern provinces of Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Adana, Adiyaman, Malatya, Osmaniye, Hatay, and Kilis.
Nine hours later, a second quake, registering 7.6 magnitude, struck the same region, resulting in yet more deaths and injuries and further compounding the destruction.
According to AFAD, the epicenter of the second quake was in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras Province.
“There are many collapsed buildings in the area,” Abdulkadir Aytac, a 52-year-old baker in Elbistan, said in the immediate wake of the second quake.
“Those buildings that are still standing are in bad shape,” Aytac told The Epoch Times. “If there’s an aftershock, more buildings will certainly fall.”
Turkey’s Gaziantep Province later was shaken by two large aftershocks that measured 6.4 and 6.5, respectively.
As of press time, Turkish authorities had put the casualty toll at 2,921 dead and 15,800 injured, while more than 5,600 buildings in 10 southern provinces had reportedly collapsed as a result of the temblors.
According to local press reports, more than 7,340 survivors have so far been successfully extracted from the rubble; it’s feared that thousands more remain trapped.
Orhan Tatar, AFAD’s general director of earthquake and risk reduction, said that “serious earthquake activity in the region” is continuing, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.
Aftershocks of up to 6.7 in magnitude are likely to continue for hours, he said.
Meanwhile, in northern Syria, the twin quakes caused widespread devastation as powerful tremors were reported in the provinces of Idlib, Aleppo, Hama, Latakia, and Raqqa.
According to the Syrian Health Ministry, more than 1,400 people have been killed and thousands more injured, although these numbers are expected to rise further.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden has reportedly ordered his administration to provide Turkey with “any and all needed assistance.”
Speaking on Twitter, Biden said he was “deeply saddened by the loss of life and devastation caused by the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin also conveyed his condolences to Turkey in a telephone call to his Turkish counterpart. According to Ankara’s Communications Directorate, Putin also offered to provide assistance to Turkey in search-and-rescue efforts and disaster relief.
Speaking shortly before the second quake, Erdogan described the incident as the “biggest natural disaster” to hit Turkey since a 1939 earthquake in the central Erzincan Province that killed 32,000 people.
In 1999, Turkey’s northwestern Izmit Province was rocked by a 7.6-magnitude earthquake that left more than 17,000 people dead.
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