Quake kills over 1,200 across Turkey, Syria

The most powerful earthquake in nearly a century struck Turkey and Syria early on Monday, killing over 1,200 people in their sleep, levelling buildings and causing tremors felt as far away as Iraq and Egypt.

The 7.8-magnitude quake wiped out entire sections of major Turkish cities in a restless region filled with millions of people who have fled the civil war in Syria and other conflicts.

The head of Syria's National Earthquake Centre, Raed Ahmed, told pro-government radio that this was "the biggest earthquake recorded in the history of the centre".

At least 326 people died in government-controlled parts of Syria, according to the latest toll.

At least 912 people also died in Turkey, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Shocked survivors in Turkey rushed out into the snow-covered streets in their pyjamas, watching rescuers dig through the debris of damaged homes with their hands.

"Seven members of my family are under the debris," Muhittin Orakci, a stunned survivor in Turkey's mostly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, told AFP.

"My sister and her three children are there. And also her husband, her father-in-law and her mother-in-law."

The rescue was being hampered by a winter blizzard that covered major roads in ice and snow. Officials said the quake made three major airports in the area inoperable, further complicating deliveries of vital aid.

'People under rubble'

Images on Turkish television showed rescuers digging through rubble across city centres and residential neighbourhoods of almost all the big cities running along the border with Syria.

Some of the heaviest devastation occurred near the quake's epicentre between Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep, where entire city blocks lay in ruins under the gathering snow.

Kahramanmaras Governor Omer Faruk Coskun said it was too early to estimate the death toll because so many buildings were destroyed.

"It is not possible to give the number of dead and injured at the moment because so many buildings have been destroyed," Coskun said. "The damage is serious."

Civil Defense: The death toll from the #earthquake in northwestern #Syria has risen to more than 221 deaths and more than 419 injured. pic.twitter.com/xCSu0oVCxx

— Mohammad - محمد عساكره (@mohammed_asakra) February 6, 2023

A famous mosque dating back to the 13th century partially collapsed in the province of Maltaya, where a 14-story building with 28 apartments housed 92 people also collapsed.

In other cities, social media posts showed a 2,200-year-old hilltop castle built by Roman armies in Gaziantep lying in ruins, its walls partially turned to rubble.

"We hear voices here -- and over there, too," one rescuer was overheard as saying on NTV television in front of a flattened building in the city of Diyarbakir.

"There may be 200 people under the rubble."