The death toll following the earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale that shook southern Turkey and northern Syria this morning has risen to more than 1000, according to official sources.
The Turkish disaster and emergency management agency said the quake killed at least 485 people in seven provinces of the country and left 440 injured.
At least 632 people lost their lives and more than 630 were injured in various Syrian cities, according to state media. In addition, 47 people died in rebel-held areas, which are home to some four million displaced people from other parts of the country, following the long civil war.
Quoted by the Associated Press agency, Raed Salah, who leads the White Helmets, a non-governmental civil defense organization operating in these areas, said that entire neighborhoods collapsed in the aftermath of the quake.
Rescue teams continue to search for survivors in several cities in both countries, and the death toll is expected to continue to rise.
In a reaction to the incident, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote on the social network Twitter that “search and rescue teams were immediately sent” to the affected areas.
“We hope to get through this disaster together as soon as possible and with minimal damage,” he wrote.
The quake occurred at 04:17 (01:17 in Lisbon), 33 kilometers from the capital of the province of Gaziantep, in southeastern Turkey, with the origin at a depth of 17.9 kilometers.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), minutes after the first earthquake, another earthquake measuring 6.7 degrees on the Richter scale was recorded at a depth of 9.9 kilometers.
The tremors were also felt in Lebanon and Cyprus, according to correspondents for the France–Presse agency.
Turkey is located in one of the most active seismic zones in the world.
In November, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake hit the Turkish province of Düzce, 200 kilometers east of Istanbul, leaving at least 68 people injured.
The quake struck in the same province where a magnitude 7.4 earthquake killed around 17,000 people in August 1999, including 1,000 in Istanbul.
