Lana Abdel-Hamid had just enough time to gather the younger members of her family and escape from her home in the Syrian city of Aleppo before the minaret of a neighboring mosque collapsed on top of the building.
“God saved me and my children. When the tremors started, I grabbed them and ran outside,” said the 26-year-old mother of two. “But we still haven’t found my father. I’m afraid it may be night before we find her and our neighbors and I’m worried for another earthquake.
Such desperate scenes were repeated in northern Syria and southeastern Turkey, where authorities raced on Monday to contain a deepening humanitarian crisis after the worst earthquake to hit the region in eight decades.
The initial earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.8, and a series of powerful aftershocks devastated towns and cities in southeastern Turkey and along the border in northern Syria, killing more than 2,400 people and injuring many more . The death toll is expected to rise significantly.
The first, the most devastating earthquake, occurred in the early hours near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, triggering shock waves that could be felt as far away as Egypt and Israel. Several hours later a second quake struck about 60 miles away, with dozens of smaller aftershocks also rocking the region, toppling thousands of buildings and sending people running for safety in the streets.
According to witnesses, residents of several Turkish provinces fled their homes in rain and snow, in near-freezing temperatures. Video footage showed rescue workers digging through the rubble; On a street in Gaziantep, an apartment building collapsed while rescuers worked nearby.
Residents roamed the streets pleading for help as they surveyed the ruins of their cities. A man in Elbistan, a town close to the epicenter, videoed flattened buildings in disbelief and shouted: “This was our main main street. We are without hope. A castle that has stood guard over Gaziantep for hundreds of years, sustained significant damage, underscoring the historic level of power generated by the earthquake.
Rescue workers were able to pull a child out of the rubble of a collapsed apartment block in Adana province, while earthmoving equipment cleared away steel and concrete in Diyarbakır as rescuers tried to contact any survivors. The desperate search continued as darkness fell on Monday night. In some places rescue workers called for silence to listen for potential victims under the rubble.
In Adana province, a social worker, who declined to give his name, saw scenes of desperation and panic. “I ran here when the earthquake first hit. When I first reached the rubble, I heard people shouting for help.”
Many residents of Adana remember the deadly earthquake that hit the city in 1998. Gul Turnali, a housewife, said, “It’s bigger than that, definitely bigger.”
Turkey’s Red Crescent humanitarian agency said it had sent mobile kitchens, more than 1,000 tents and about 20,000 blankets to the area. Islamic Relief, another aid organisation, said it had launched a $20 million fundraising campaign, warning that supplies of mattresses, blankets and other bedding would probably be exhausted within hours. Turkey, which has appealed for international help, has received offers of aid from several countries, including the US, the UK, the Netherlands and Azerbaijan.
Syrian state television showed footage of rescue teams searching for survivors in stormy weather, with health officials asking the public to help rescue their neighbors and take them to hospitals. A video published by the Syrian American Medical Society, which supports medical facilities in the country’s northwest, showed a chaotic emergency room “filled with cases” at Bab al Hawa hospital in Aleppo.
“Our hospitals are overwhelmed with patients filling the hallways,” the group said, adding that several of its hospitals sustained “severe damage” including the Idlib hospital from where newborns were evacuated to a nearby facility that is still functioning. Had been.
The affected region of northwest Syria has been devastated by 12 years of war that wiped out much of the region’s infrastructure. It is one of the last remaining pockets of what remains of Syria’s scattered opposition, which could complicate rescue efforts.
The Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, said heavy rain and snowfall had made it difficult to access damaged areas, with “hundreds of families” still trapped under the rubble.
“So many buildings were destroyed and I saw tens of thousands of people under the rubble, whom the mob tried to pull out,” said Mohammed Hamza, the head of Islamic Relief’s office in Idlib, northwest Syria. “People are still in the streets – they have nothing to go home to and we are all scared of aftershocks.”
Many of the affected areas had already been displaced from other parts of the country due to the conflict. As such, many live in informal settlements on the outskirts of cities, in open fields and in abandoned buildings. Much of the area’s medical infrastructure was also destroyed during the war as hospitals were regularly targeted in airstrikes.
Turkish officials said Monday evening that 1,651 people have been killed and more than 8,500 injured in the country. About 430 people were confirmed killed in government-controlled areas of Syria, and more than 380 in the opposition-controlled northwestern region.
