More than 1,400 people lost their lives in the disaster and it is believed that hundreds of people are still trapped under the debris, and the toll continues to rise as rescue workers search for survivors amid mounds of wreckage in the devastated cities.
On the two sides of the border, residents woke up to the pre-dawn quake and hurriedly rushed on the streets. In seconds, huge, multi-storied buildings turned into pancaked floors, while people continued to face 50 major aftershocks.
As the search for survivors continued, residents and rescue workers continued to rummage through concrete and tangles of metals. In Turkiye, a hospital collapsed. Patients, which included newborns, were rescued from facilities in Syria.
In Adana, a city in Turkey, a resident said that three buildings collapsed near his home. “I don’t have the strength anymore,” called out one survivor, stranded beneath the debris, as rescue workers tried to save him, narrated journalism student Muhammet Fatih Yavus.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “Because the debris removal efforts are continuing in many buildings in the earthquake zone, we do not know how high the number of dead and injured will rise. Our hope is that we recover from this disaster with the least loss of life possible.”
It was reported that thousands of buildings in the Syrian cities of Aleppo and Hama also collapsed, along with Turkish cities, as many people lost their lives and their kins.
Southeast Turkey was again struck by a 7.5-magnitude earthquake on Monday afternoon, stated the US Geological Survey, hours after the natural disaster destroyed the region.