Feb 6 (France 24) – A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria early on Monday, killing more than a thousand people as they slept, levelling buildings and sending tremors that were felt as far away as Cyprus, Egypt and Iraq.
Hours later, a second earthquake of magnitude 7.6 centered on the same region in southeastern Turkey struck, the country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said.
One of the largest quakes to strike Turkey in a century wiped out entire sections of major cities in a region filled with millions of people who have fled the civil war in Syria and other conflicts.
The head of Syria’s National Earthquake Centre, Raed Ahmed, told pro-government radio that this was “the biggest earthquake recorded in the history of the centre”.
At least 473 people were killed in Syria, state news agency SANA quoted a senior health official as saying.
At least 912 were killed in Turkey, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
