AZMARIN,syria(AP) – ON early monday a powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked southeastern turkey and northern syria.killing more than 1900 people and toppling hundreds of buildings,hundreds were still belived to be trapped under rubble ,and the tool was expected to rise as rescue workers searched mounds of wreckage in cities and towns across the area.
a hospital in turkey collapsed and patients including.new borns,were evacuated from a handful of facilities in syria. residents and rescue workers in multiple cities searched for survivors,working through tangds of metal and giant piles of concrete. one resident of turkish city said three buildings neare his home colapsed.one survivor could be heared calling out from beneath the rubble as rescue workers tried to reach him,said resident journalism student muhammed fatih yavus.
in east diyabakir , crares and rescue teams rushed people on stretchers out of a mountain of pancaked concrete floors that was once an appartment building.the earthquake felt as far away as cairo was centered north of Gaziantep,a turkish provincial capital . it destroyed a place that has been shaped on bothsides of the boarder by morethan a decade of civil war in syria.on the syrian side ,the swath affected is divided between government – had territory and the country’s last opposition – held enclove,which is sorrouned russian-backed government forces,from that conflict turkey ,is a home to million of refuges.
Neraly 4 million people from the syria a displaced from other parts of the country by fighting. Many of them live in building that are alredy wrecked from past bombardments in rubble hundreds of families remand trapped. the opposition emergency organization called the white helmets ,said in a statements.
Rescue worker said strained health facilities and hospitals were quickly filled with wound, according to SAMS hosptilas others had to be emptied including maternity hospitals. a doctor named munhub Quaddor said”we fear that deaths are in the hundreds” by phone from town of atemh. By earthquakes turkey sites on top of major faut lines is frequently shaken. nearly 18000 werw killed in powerful earhquake . that hit northeast turkey that hit northeast turkey in 1999.according to U.S geological survey mondays quake at 7.8 at least 20 after shocks followed,some hours after during day light including one measuring 7.5.
