A powerful earthquake in southeastern Turkey near the Syrian border has killed more than 2,300 people in both countries. He is estimated to have killed more than 1,500 people in Turkey and 810 in Syria, according to the Turkish Disaster Management Agency. Those numbers are expected to rise as rescuers comb through the piles of debris in frigid, snowy weather. The Turkish president said it was Turkey’s worst disaster in decades. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck at 04:17 local time (01:17 GMT) at a depth of 17.9 km (11 miles) near the city of Gaziantep, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. According to seismologists, the first quake was one of the strongest recorded in Turkey. A survivor said it took two minutes for the shaking to stop.
According to the US Geological Survey, the quake occurred about 33 kilometers (20 miles) from Gaziantep and about 26 kilometers (16 miles) from the city of Nurdagi. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, its depth was 18 kilometers (11 miles). Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Agency was based in the city of Pazardjik in Kahramanmaras province. The European Union has dispatched a rescue team and is preparing more aid to Turkey, a European Union crisis management official said.
