People and emergency teams rescue a person on a stretcher from a collapsed building in Adana, Turkey, Monday. A powerful quake has knocked down multiple buildings in southeast Turkey and Syria and many casualties are feared. Photo- AP
Istanbul: Turkey has declared a fourth-level alert state after a massive earthquake of 7.8 Richter scale hit the country which resulted in hundreds of casualties and damage to buildings. The “level 4” alarm condition includes an international call for help.
Turkey’s vice president Fuat Oktay said 284 people had been killed and 2,323 people were injured, as authorities scrambled rescue teams and supply aircraft to the affected area while declaring a “level 4 alarm” that calls for international assistance.
“The situation is very tragic, tens of buildings have collapsed in the city of Salqin,” a member of the White Helmets rescue organisation said in a video clip on Twitter, referring to a town about 5km from the Turkish border.
State television channels showed footage of rescue teams searching for survivors in heavy rain and sleet. However, there is no damage to the Kerkuk-Ceyhan pipeline carrying oil from Iraq to Turkey, or to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, and oil flows are continuing on both after a major earthquake struck Turkey, an energy official told Reuters on Monday.
The European Union has also extended help saying that it will send rescue teams and prepare further help for Turkey after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed hundreds of people, the bloc’s crisis management commissioner said Monday.
“Teams from the Netherlands and Romania are already on their way,” with the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre overseeing their deployment, commissioner Janez Lenarcic tweeted. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in Aleppo posted photographs of blocks of stone that had crashed down onto its mezzanine. The United States was “profoundly concerned” about the quake in Turkey and Syria and was monitoring events closely, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Twitter.
“I have been in touch with Turkish officials to relay that we stand ready to provide any and all needed assistance,” he said.
A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southeast Turkey and Syria early Monday. At least 195 people were killed in both countries, hundreds were injured and the toll was expected to rise, according to media reports.
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