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DIYARBAKIR/ANKARA – A massive earthquake killed over 3,700 people over a span of Turkey and northwest Syria on Monday, with severe winter weather exacerbating the condition of the many thousands left injured or homeless and complicating attempts to locate survivors.
The magnitude 7.8 quake took down entire apartment buildings in Turkish cities, adding to the damage caused by years of conflict for millions of Syrians.
The greatest tremor to hit Turkey this century struck before daybreak in tough weather, and was followed by another major quake of magnitude 7.7 in the early afternoon.
"It seemed like the end of the world," said Abdul Salam al-Mahmoud, a Syrian living in the northern town of Atareb. "It's very cold and raining heavily, and people need to be saved."
The second quake was strong enough to knock down additional buildings and, like the first, was felt throughout the region, putting rescuers at risk as they attempted to remove victims from the wreckage.
A lady standing near to the ruins of the seven-story building where she resided in Diyarbakir, southeast Turkey, said: "We were tossed around like a cradle. We had nine people at home. My two boys are still in the debris, and I'm waiting for them."
She was suffering from a fractured arm and facial injuries.
The quake was the largest recorded globally by the US Geological Survey since an earthquake in the distant South Atlantic in August 2021.
According to the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), the death toll in Turkey was 2,316, making it the country's worst earthquake since a comparable magnitude tremor in 1999 ravaged the highly populated eastern Marmara Sea area near Istanbul, killing over 17,000 people.
Poor internet connections and damaged roads linking some of Turkey's worst-affected towns in the south, which are home to millions of people, hampered efforts to analyse and mitigate the effect.
Temperatures were predicted to drop to near freezing in some locations tonight, aggravating circumstances for those trapped beneath rubble or left homeless. After snowstorms blanketed the country over the weekend, rain began to pour on Monday.
It is already the worst earthquake in Turkey since 1999, when a comparable magnitude tremor ravaged the densely populated eastern Marmara Sea area near Istanbul, killing almost 17,000 people.
The earthquake wounded about 13,000 individuals in Turkey.
President Tayyip Erdogan, who is heading for a difficult election in May, termed the earthquake a historic calamity and the biggest to hit Turkey since 1939, but said officials were doing all possible.
"Everyone is putting their heart and soul into efforts," he stated, despite the fact that the winter season, cold weather, and the earthquake occurring during the night make things more difficult.
Following the second quake, Turkish official TV TRT showed a building fall in the southern province of Adana. It was unclear whether it had been evacuated.
According to Damascus official estimates and rescue workers in Syria's northwestern province controlled by militants, at least 1,444 people were killed and over 3,500 were injured in Monday's earthquake.
According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, the earthquake would further exacerbate the suffering of millions of Syrians who are already facing a humanitarian crisis as a result of the civil conflict.
Reuters journalists witnessed scores of rescue workers combing through a mound of debris, all that was left of a large structure, and carting out fragments of wreckage as they hunted for survivors in the Turkish city of Diyarbakir. They sometimes raised their hands and shouted for silence, looking for signs of life.
Men carried a girl covered in blankets from a fallen city structure. Drone footage from Izmir shows rescue personnel standing atop a heap of rubble where a structure previously stood, struggling to raise brick slabs.
Two neighbouring buildings collapsed one after the other in Syria's Aleppo, filling the street with billowing dust, according to video circulating on Twitter.
Two inhabitants of the war-ravaged city reported buildings had collapsed in the hours following the quake, which was also felt in Cyprus and Lebanon.
'No one showed up.'
A heap of concrete, steel rods, and bundles of garments lie where a multi-story structure previously stood in the Syrian rebel-held town of Jandaris in Aleppo province.
"There were 12 families living down there. There was not a single one. Not a single one, "A slender young guy spoke out, his eyes wide open in disbelief and his hand bandaged.
Raed al-Saleh of the Syrian White Helmets, a rescue group in rebel-held area famed for retrieving people from the remains of buildings devastated by air strikes, said they were in a "race against time" to save the lives of those under the rubble.
A Reuters correspondent witnessed an apparently lifeless infant being dragged from the remains of a building in the Syrian government-held city of Hama.
Rescue personnel were shown looking for survivors in severe rain and sleet on Syrian official television. According to his administration, President Bashar al-Assad convened an emergency cabinet meeting to assess the damage and plan the next actions.
Erdogan stated that 45 countries had pledged to assist Turkey's search and rescue efforts.
In footage published by Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, a rescue worker climbed into a fallen structure, attempting to locate a survivor buried beneath the ruins (AFAD).
"What colour do you have on? Are you dressed in pink? Please take care of yourself for the time being; I can't think of anything else "a rescue worker was heard saying.
