ANKARA, 6th February, 2023 (WAM) — A major earthquake of magnitude 7.9 killed more than 50 people in southern Türkiye on Monday and was felt in Cyprus, Lebanon and Syria, collapsing dozens of buildings and triggering a search for survivors under the rubble in snowy streets, Reuters said.
Turkish authorities scrambled rescue teams and supply aircraft to the region around the city of Kahramanmaras, while declaring a "level 4 alarm" that calls for international assistance.
Early statements by officials suggested the death toll was at least 23 in Türkiye's Malatya province, 17 in Sanliurfa, six in Diyarbakir and five more in Osmaniye. South across the border in Syria, state media said 42 had been killed.
"I have never felt anything like it in the 40 years I've lived," said Erdem, a resident of the Turkish city of Gaziantep, near the quake's epicentre.
It was still too dark to see the nature of the damage, he added.
"Everybody is sitting in their cars, or trying to drive to open spaces away from buildings," he said, speaking by telephone. "I imagine not a single person in Gaziantep is in their homes now."
The tremor lasted about a minute and shattered windows, according to a Reuters witness in Diyarbakir, 350 km (218 miles) to the east, where a security official said at least 17 buildings collapsed.