There are fears that the death toll will rise over time.
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‘People are still under the rubble’
In the southeastern region of Turkey, close to the Syrian border, a powerful earthquake hit sleeping citizens at dawn on the 6th (local time), killing more than 500 people and trapping many others under the rubble of buildings.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) announced that a magnitude 7.8 earthquake with a depth of 17.9 km occurred near Gaziantep at 4:17 am local time.
Vice-President Puat Okthai Turkijeki said the death toll had risen to 284.
In Syria, the border country, there were official reports that more than 230 people were killed.
Syrian health authorities said deaths occurred in the provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Tartus.
Rescuers are searching for survivors in the rubble of huge buildings after numerous buildings collapsed in the earthquake, but there are concerns that the death toll will soar as time goes on.
Interior Minister Suleiman Soilu Türkiye said 10 cities, including Gaziantep, Karamanmaras, Hatay, Osmaniye, Adiyaman, Malatya, Sanliurfa, Adana, Diyarbakir and Kilis, were affected by the earthquake. said to have suffered damage.
Local authorities in Malatya province, northeast of Gaziantep, said at least 23 people had been killed, while 17 people were reported dead in Sanliurfa, to the east. More deaths were reported in Diyarbakir and Osmaniye.
The number of injured has so far been 2,323 in Turkey and 639 in Syria.
A BBC correspondent in Diyarbakir reported that a shopping mall in the city had collapsed.
According to Syrian state media, many deaths occurred in the provinces of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia.
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Citizens search for survivors under rubble in the Malatya region
Meanwhile, vibrations were also detected in the neighboring countries of Lebanon and Cyprus.
Mohammed El Chama, a student in Beirut, Lebanon, told the BBC: “I was writing when all of a sudden the whole building started to shake. It was unfamiliar,” he said.
He added, “There was a window right next to me, so I was afraid that the window might be shattered. The vibration continued for 45 minutes. It was very scary. Shocking,” he said.
Also, BBC producer Rushdi Abualouf, from Gaza on the Mediterranean coast, was at home and said he felt the vibrations for about 45 seconds.
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earthquake location
Turkish seismologists estimated the magnitude of the quake at 7.4, and explained that a second quake hit the same area just minutes later.
Meanwhile, Turkey is one of the most seismically active regions in the world, and in 1999, a powerful northwest earthquake killed more than 17,000 people.
