Massive Earthquake Hits Turkey and Syria, over 1500 dead

#news #earthquake More than 1,700 people were killed while they slept and numerous others were trapped by a strong earthquake that slammed south-eastern Turkey, close to the Syrian border. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake, according to the US Geological Survey, occurred at 04:17 local time at a depth of 17.9 kilometers close to the city of Gaziantep. A second earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 struck the Elbistan district of the Kahramanmaras province hours later. More than a thousand people have passed away in Turkey and 780 in Syria so far. The initial earthquake was one of the biggest ever recorded in Turkey, according to seismologists. There were many thousands of injuries, with at least 5,385 injuries in Turkey and 2,000 injuries in Syria. Numerous victims are found in the war-torn region of northern Syria, where millions of refugees are housed in camps on both sides of the country's border with Turkey. Numerous fatalities have been reported in regions controlled by the rebels. Rescue teams have been sent in to look for survivors amid massive amounts of rubble in the frigid and icy weather after numerous buildings have collapsed. Images of the devastation include mounds of rubble, four- to five-story buildings that have been completely demolished, and ruined roadways. Gaziantep Castle, a historic structure that has stood for more than 2,000 years, was one of the structures that was destroyed. A BBC Turkish correspondent in the city of Diyarbakir also claimed that a retail center had collapsed. The second earthquake, which occurred at 13:24 local time, had its epicenter in the Pazarcik district of the Kahramanmaras province, roughly 128 kilometers north of the first tremor. The preceding earthquake was "independent" of this one, according to a disaster and emergency management authority official in Turkey. A toddler was found alive and unclean and bloodied in Azaz, Syria, hours after the first earthquake. Rescuers can be seen rushing to get her out of the cold in the video.