News of the devastation of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake continuously poured into the mobile phones of people in the city of Gaziantep, southern Turkey during the night.
| Rescue workers search for survivors under rubble following an earthquake in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Image: Archyde.com. |
In the city of Gaziantep – the epicenter of Friday’s quake – some residents left their homes in the cold and took shelter in their cars as the ground began to shake before dawn.
As they waited for the earthquake to end and the sun to rise, bad news kept pouring into their phones.
A man burst into tears when he learned his brother was trapped under the rubble of a collapsed building.
Others either received news that their homes had been severely damaged, or that loved ones were injured. Many victims were taken to local hospitals.
The earthquake also damaged Gaziantep Castle, a historic landmark in southern Turkey.
Security cameras in a store in Gaziantep captured the moment the main earthquake struck. Footage shows shelves rattling for at least 1 minute and 30 seconds. Furniture and equipment fell to the floor and shattered.
Davut Gul, Governor of Gaziantep, wrote on Twitter that the quake was “severely felt” in Gaziantep, a city of more than two million people. He urged people to wait outside until the shaking stops.
Similar scenes played out in other cities and towns across Turkey and Syria following the earthquake. Videos on social media are New York Times Verification shows that buildings have collapsed, cars have been crushed, and emergency services are conducting rescue operations.
Theo CNNthe death toll in Syria and Turkey due to the first earthquake has reached at least 1,504 people.
According to the state news agency A LOT of Syria, a total of at least 592 people were killed in the country, along with 1,089 wounded. In Turkey, at least 912 people were killed and 5,385 injured, according to a televised address by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Turkey’s emergency and disaster management agency, AFAD, is deploying 1,898 search and rescue personnel along with 150 vehicles to respond to the deadly earthquake, > news.
Turkey’s national police force has deployed 130 members of a tactical unit, along with a mobile command center and kitchen, to the city of Kahramanmaras, near the epicenter of the quake. A total of 300,000 blankets were also sent to the region in the midst of the cold winter.