Powerful quake kills at least 640 people in Turkiye, Syria
ANKARA (MNP) — A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southern Turkiye and northern Syria early Monday, toppling buildings and triggering a frantic search for survivors in the rubble in cities and towns across the area. At least 640 were killed and hundreds injured, and the toll was expected to rise.
On both sides of the border, residents were jolted out of sleep by the tremors several hours before dawn and rushed outside in a cold, rainy and snowy winter night. Dozens of buildings collapsed in cities across the border region.
Rescue workers and residents frantically searched for survivors under the rubble of crushed buildings in multiple cities on both sides of the border, working through tangles of metal and chunks of concrete.
In the Turkish city of Adana, witnesses said they heard one person calling for help from beneath the rubble of a building. “I don’t have the strength to carry on,” the person cried. Further east in Diyarbakir, cranes and rescue teams worked at a mountain of pancaked concrete floors that was once an apartment building.
