A huge earthquake killed more than 2,600 people and injured thousands more on Monday in Turkey and northwest Syria, flattening apartment blocks and heaping more destruction on Syrian cities already devastated by years of war.
The magnitude 7.8 quake, which hit before sunrise in bitter winter weather, was the worst to strike Turkey this century. It was followed in the early afternoon by another large quake of magnitude 7.7.
It was not immediately clear how much damage had been done by the second quake, which like the first was felt across the region and endangered rescuers struggling to pull casualties from the rubble.
His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik has sent two cables of condolences to President Dr Bashar al Assad of the Syrian Arab Republic, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the Republic of Turkey, on the earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey.
In the cables, His Majesty the Sultan expressed his heartfelt condolences to President Al Assad and President Erdogan, as well as peoples of their countries and families of the victims. His Majesty prayed to the Almighty Allah to rest the victims’ souls in peace in paradise and grant their families patience, wishing the injured a speedy recovery.
The Sultanate of Oman expressed its sincere condolences and sympathy to families of the victims in the Republic of Turkey and the Syrian Arab Republic following the devastating earthquake that hit southern Turkey.
In a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry, Oman voiced its solidarity with Turkey and Syria, wishing the injured a speedy recovery.
“We were shaken like a cradle. There were nine of us at home. Two sons of mine are still in the rubble, I’m waiting for them,” said a woman with a broken arm and injuries to her face, speaking in an ambulance near the wreckage of a seven-storey block where she had lived in Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey.
In Turkey, the death toll stood at 1,498, the disaster agency said. At least 716 people were killed in Syria, according to figures from the Damascus government and the United Nations.
Poor Internet connections and damaged roads between some of the worst-hit cities in Turkey’s south, homes to millions of people, hindered efforts to assess and address the impact.
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