Rescue tasks focus on finding people trapped in the rubble ► A 7.6 aftershock shakes the same area
The strong earthquake of magnitude 7.7 that shook Turkey this morning has already left more than 1,300 dead, at least 912 dead and more than 5,300 injured in that country alone, according to the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in an assessment of the damages.
In Syria, at the moment there are another 473 dead and 1,382 wounded.
An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 on the Richter scale has shaken this Monday the Turkish province of Kahramanmaras, the epicenter hours before a magnitude 7.4 earthquake that has left more than 1,300 dead in the country and in neighboring Syria, as confirmed by the authorities.
“A magnitude 7.6 earthquake occurred at 1:24 p.m. (local time) in the Elbistan district, in the Kahramanmaras province,” said the Emergency and Disaster Management Authority (AFAD), under the Ministry of Turkish interior, through his account on the social network Twitter.
A building collapses in Turkey during the earthquake
Kazakhstan will send rescue teams and doctors to Turkey
Hundreds dead in Syria
The death toll in Syrian territory due to a 7.4-magnitude earthquake with an epicenter in Turkey rose to 237 on Monday and the number of injured now stands at 639, without counting possible victims in opposition territory, the official news agency reported. Syrian news Sana.
The balance, offered by the Ministry of Health to SANA, only includes the victims registered in the northwestern provinces of Hama, Tartus and Latakia, and in the areas of Aleppo in the hands of the Syrian Government, although the earthquake has also left an unknown number. deaths in other areas in the hands of the opposition.
The northwestern region of Idlib, the country’s last opposition stronghold, and several parts of Aleppo are escaping the control of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and are located near the epicenter of the quake, although it is not yet known how many victims have registered there.
The tremor, with its epicenter in an area of southeastern Turkey near the border with Syria, has also left dozens of people dead in Turkish territory.
The epicenter of the earthquake, which lasted about 30 seconds at around 4:17 Turkish time (01:17 GMT), was the Kahramanmaras region and the earthquake occurred at a depth of seven kilometers, said the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD). ) from Turkey. Minutes later, at least two aftershocks were recorded, with a magnitude between 6.4 and 6.7 degrees.
The earthquake in Turkey is the strongest recorded by a Syrian system since 1995
The Syrian National Seismic Monitoring Center said Monday that the earthquake that occurred at dawn with an epicenter in southeastern Turkey, near the Syrian border, is the “strongest” recorded by Syrian systems in almost three decades and raised its magnitude. at 7.7 degrees.
“This earthquake is the strongest recorded by the national seismic monitoring network since its creation in 1995,” the center’s director general, Raed Ahmed, told SANA, recalling that Syria had already been “historically” affected by earthquakes in the southeast. from Turkey.
Tsunami warning in Italy
The tsunami alert declared for the southern coast of Italy after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake with its epicenter between Turkey and Syria has been lifted, while rail traffic has resumed in the regions of Sicily, Calabria and Apulia, where It had been suspended this morning.
The revocation of the tsunami warning was announced by Civil Protection, which ordered it based on data recorded by Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), it said in a statement.
In addition, rail traffic has resumed in the three southern regions of the country where it had been suspended and is now proceeding normally, the State Railways (FS) company reported.
Spain activates the shipment of humanitarian aid
The Government has activated the sending of urgent aid to Turkey and Syria to participate in the search and rescue of victims after the earthquake that this morning has shaken both countries.
This has been advanced by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, in a message on social networks, in which he has expressed his solidarity with Turkey and Syria “in the face of one of the biggest earthquakes in their history”.
Sánchez has indicated that, in response to the request of the European Civil Protection Mechanism, the Ministry of the Interior has activated the Military Emergency Unit (UME) and urgent air transport to support search tasks.