Rescuers in Turkey and Syria were desperately combing the rubble in search of survivors after a series of powerful earthquakes collapsed thousands of buildings, killed more than 3,000 people and raised the specter of a new humanitarian disaster.
Rescuers in Turkey and Syria were desperately combing the rubble in search of survivors after a series of powerful earthquakes collapsed thousands of buildings, killed more than 3,000 people and raised the specter of a new humanitarian disaster.
GAZIANTEP, Turkey — Rescuers in Turkey and Syria were desperately combing the rubble in search of survivors after a series of powerful earthquakes collapsed thousands of buildings, killed more than 3,000 people and raised the specter of a new humanitarian disaster in an area of the world already wracked by war, a refugee crisis, deep economic troubles and near-freezing temperatures.
The initial magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit at 4:17 a.m. local time Monday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and was also felt in Cyprus, Egypt, Israel and Lebanon. Dozens of aftershocks, including an unusually strong 7.5 magnitude tremor, struck Turkey in the aftermath, the USGS said.
“This is a part of the world that has a lot of active plate tectonics happening. Most of the world’s earthquakes occur around plate boundaries,” said Kevin Stewart, associate professor in the department of earth, marine and environmental sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
