Nearly 20,000 people, according to provisional figures published Thursday, were killed Monday in southeastern Turkey and neighboring Syria, by a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.8, followed a few hours later by a very strong aftershock. International aid was mobilized after these tremors recorded as far as Greenland. Provisional death tolls continue to rise: at least 16,546 people have been killed in southeastern Turkey, and 3,317 in northern Syria. The point in pictures.


Director: Olivier JUSZCZAK

  • Nearly 20,000 people, according to provisional figures released Thursday, were killed Monday in southeastern Turkey and neighboring Syria by a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.8.

  • The first tremor occurred at 4:17 a.m. local time (1:17 GMT) in Pazarcik district, in the southeastern province of Kahramanmaras, about 60 km as the crow flies from the Syrian border.

  • Dozens of aftershocks followed, before a new earthquake of magnitude 7.5, at 10:24 GMT, still in southeastern Turkey, 4 km southeast of the city of Ekinozu.

  • And the provisional toll continues to rise: at least 16,546 people have died in Turkey, and the authorities have counted nearly 5,000 collapsed buildings.

  • The death toll is still likely to change in the affected cities, including Adana, Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir.

  • In Iskenderun and Adiyaman, public hospitals collapsed as a result of the earthquake, which occurred at a depth of about 17.9 kilometres.

  • This earthquake is the largest in Turkey since the earthquake of August 17, 1999, which caused the death of 17,000 people, including a thousand in Istanbul.

  • In Syria, the earthquake killed at least 3,317 people, according to the latest assessment by the Syrian Ministry of Health and rescue workers in rebel areas.

  • And the number of injured has been rising ever since.

  • Aleppo's citadel and several other archaeological sites were damaged, according to the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums.

  • "With my wife and children, we ran to the door of our apartment on the third floor. As soon as we opened it, the whole building collapsed," Osama Abdelhamid, a resident of a Syrian village bordering Turkey, told AFP as he was treated at Al-Rahma hospital in the town of Darkoush.

  • Faced with this desolation, everywhere the inhabitants are mobilizing and trying to clear the ruins with their bare hands, using buckets to evacuate the debris.

  • The powerful earthquake proved devastating because of a combination of several factors: the time of its triggering, its location, a fault line relatively quiet for two centuries and poorly constructed buildings.

  • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for national unity, saying Turkey had received offers of help from 45 countries.

  • As for the Syrian government, it appealed to the international community for help.

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