Istanbul: A woman has been rescued alive nearly 22 hours after a devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck central Turkey and border Syria on Monday morning. An unidentified woman was pulled alive from the rubble in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa, according to Turkey’s state media service Andalu Agency. Turkey’s state media agency also posted a video showing the woman being pulled out of the rubble by national rescue teams with the help of local residents.
Watch video of woman pulled alive from under rubble in Turkey
A woman was rescued after 22 hours from the rubble of a collapsed building in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa https://t.co/9XuWtuDWGi pic.twitter.com/A7kpzGEkhd– Anadolu Agency (@anadoluagency) February 7, 2023
It comes after a number of shocking videos and images have emerged on social media showing the destruction and chaos wrought by three powerful earthquakes as rescue teams in Turkey and war-ravaged Syria continue to search for more survivors from the rubble. The combined death toll from a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake that shook central Turkey for the first time on Monday morning has risen to 4,372 and brought down thousands of buildings across a wide area.
Officials fear the death toll from Monday’s pre-dawn earthquake and aftershocks will continue to rise as rescuers search for survivors amid tangles of metal and concrete in a region wracked by Syria’s 12-year civil war and refugee crisis. Looking for.
These shocking videos show survivors crying for help inside mountains of rubble as first responders battled through rain and snow. Meanwhile, seismic activity continued to rattle the region, including another aftershock almost as powerful as the initial quake. Workers carefully removed concrete slabs and reached for bodies as desperate families waited for news of their loved ones.
The earthquake, which occurred in the early darkness of a winter morning, was also felt in Cyprus and Lebanon. Several aftershocks followed the most powerful earthquake in nearly a century. Several collapsed buildings can be seen in social media videos, with terrified locals huddled in the streets.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared 7 days of national mourning in the country after a powerful earthquake struck the country’s southern region before dawn, which claimed more than 2,000 lives. 656 people are reported killed in government-held areas of Syria.
The first quake on Monday morning was the biggest to hit Turkey in at least 100 years, news agency AFP reported. In Turkey, entire sections of cities populated by Syrian refugees have been wiped out. An earthquake occurred near Gaziantep, a Turkish city with a population of about two million. More than 40 aftershocks occurred and were also felt in Egypt and Cyprus.
According to the US Geological Survey, the quake occurred at a depth of 11 miles (18 kilometers) and was centered in southern Turkey near Syria’s northern border. Several aftershocks shook both countries since the initial earthquake. USGS research geologist Alex Hatem said that in the first 11 hours, the region had felt 13 significant aftershocks with a magnitude of at least 5.