Turkey-Syria Earthquake: Woman Rescued Alive in Sanliurfa 22 Hours After Earthquake Struck – WATCH
ISTANBUL: A woman has been rescued alive nearly 22 hours after the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck central Turkey and bordering Syria on Monday morning. According to the Turkish state media service Andalou Agency, the unidentified woman was pulled out of the debris alive in the south-eastern province of Sanliurfa. Turkish state media agency also posted a video showing the woman being pulled out of the debris by national rescuers with the help of local residents.
WATCH Video Of Woman Being Pulled Alive From Under Debris in Turkey
A woman is rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building in southeastern province of Sanliurfa after 22 hours https://t.co/9XuWtuDWGi pic.twitter.com/A7kpzGEkhd
— ANADOLU AGENCY (@anadoluagency) February 7, 2023
This comes after several shocking videos and images showing the destruction and chaos unleashed by three power earthquakes have surfaced on social media as rescuers in Turkey and war-ravaged Syria continue their search for more survivors from the rubble. The combined death toll due to the powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake that first rocked central turkey on Monday morning has risen to 4372 and it toppled thousands of buildings across a wide region.
Authorities feared the death toll from Monday’s pre-dawn earthquake and aftershocks would keep climbing as rescuers looked for survivors among tangles of metal and concrete spread across the region beset by Syria’s 12-year civil war and refugee crisis.
These shocking videos show survivors crying out for help from within mountains of debris as first responders contended with rain and snow. Meanwhile, seismic activity continued to rattle the region, including another jolt nearly as powerful as the initial quake. Workers carefully pulled away slabs of concrete and reached for bodies as desperate families waited for news of loved ones.
The quake, which hit in the early darkness of a winter morning, was also felt in Cyprus and Lebanon. Multiple aftershocks followed the most powerful earthquake in nearly a century. Social media videos showed multiple collapsed buildings with terrified locals huddling on the streets.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared a 7-day national mourning in the country following a powerful pre-dawn earthquake in the country’s southern region which claimed the lives of over 2,000 people. 656 people were reported dead in government-held areas of Syria.
The first earthquake that hit on Monday morning is the largest ever to hit Turkey in at least 100 years, the news agency AFP reported. In Turkey, entire sections of cities populated by Syrian refugees have been wiped out. The earthquake struck near Gaziantep, a Turkish city with a population of around 2 million. More than 40 aftershocks followed and they were felt even in Egypt and Cyprus.
The quake hit at depth of 11 miles (18 kilometers) and was centered in southern Turkey, near the northern border of Syria, according to the US Geological Survey. Many aftershocks rocked the two countries since the initial quake. In the first 11 hours, the region had felt 13 significant aftershocks with a magnitude of at least 5, said Alex Hatem, a USGS research geologist.
