The international community sent its condolences for the victims, including the Argentine government, which expressed its “solidarity” through President Alberto Fernández, while Pope Francis offered “heartfelt prayers” for the thousands of dead and wounded. The European Union and Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed their willingness to send aid to the disaster area, while US President Joe Biden was “deeply saddened” by the devastating earthquake.
In addition, the UN General Assembly observed a minute of silence for the victims. According to the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, the earthquake in that country left at least 1,498 dead and some 8,533 injured and caused the collapse of some 2,834 buildings, which raises fears of “an even greater number of victims,” according to the statement. the AFP news agency.
On the list of people who were left under the rubble in Turkish territory is the footballer Christian Atsu, a midfielder for Hatayspor in the Turkish Super League and the Ghanaian team, according to local media.
The Argentine consul in Istanbul, Diego Álvarez Rivera, told Télam Radio that for the moment no Argentine resident has been registered as a victim of the earthquake in Turkey and that all those contacted on the Consulate’s list “said to be in perfect condition.” In neighboring Syria, meanwhile, the powerful earthquake caused at least 810 deaths and more than 2,280 injuries, between areas under government control and those in the hands of rebels.
The Syrian Ministry of Health reported 430 people dead and 1,315 wounded in the areas under government control in this country at war, while the White Helmets, which operate in the parts in the hands of the rebels and were the ones who mobilized in those areas , indicated that there were at least 380 deaths and more than 1,000 injuries in those sectors.
The White Helmets assured that the number could increase since “hundreds of families are under the rubble” and warned that their teams suffered “great difficulties” and needed “rescue material”.
The White Helmets called the situation “catastrophic” and called on international humanitarian organizations to “intervene quickly” to help the local population. There were house collapses in several cities, including Aleppo (north), Syria’s second largest city, as well as Hama (center) and in Latakia and Tartus, on the Mediterranean coast.
The Aleppo Citadel and other archaeological sites in Syria were damaged in the quake: “Parts of the Ottoman mill inside the Aleppo Citadel collapsed, and parts of the northeastern defensive walls cracked and split,” the General Directorate said. of antiquities and museums, in a statement.
The tremor was felt at 4:17 (23:17 Argentine time) and occurred at a depth of 17.9 kilometers, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The epicenter was located in the district of Pazarcik, in the province of Kahramanmaras, in the southeast of Turkey, about 60 kilometers from the Syrian border.
The telluric movement was also felt in Lebanon and Cyprus and in turn in Denmark and Greenland where the tremors “were clearly registered by the seismographs” of these countries, indicated the AFP.
The waves of the earthquake “reached the seismograph on the Danish island of Bornholm (in the Baltic Sea) about five minutes after the start of the tremor” and about eight minutes later the wave “reached the east coast of Greenland, propagating throughout the territory “said seismologist Tine Larsen. “We recorded two earthquakes and several aftershocks in Denmark and Greenland,” said the expert.
The balance is very likely to worsen quickly, taking into account the number of buildings collapsed in the most affected cities, such as Adana, Gaziantep, Sanliurfa and Diayarbakir, in southeastern Turkey. Due to the time the earthquake occurred, at dawn, most people were sleeping at home.
This earthquake is the most important in Turkey since the earthquake of August 17, 1999, which caused 17,000 deaths, a thousand of them in Istanbul.
