Turkey earthquake claims over 500 lives: Why temblors in the West Asian country are so deadly

“I have never felt anything like this in the 40 years I have lived here,” Erdem, a resident of Gaziantep, said to Reuters as an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale rocked Turkey on Monday morning.

Turkey is struggling as the strong quake struck near the city of Gaziantep at a depth of 17.9 km, leaving a massive trail of destruction — multiple buildings have been destroyed and over 500 people have died, with the toll only expected to rise. As per the last count, at least 284 people have died and more than 2,300 were injured in Turkey, according to the country’s Vice President Fuat Oktay. In Syria, at least 237 people were killed and 639 injured, Syrian state-run news agency SANA reported, citing a health ministry official.

Read all the live updates from the Turkey earthquake HERE

More than 1,000 search and rescue volunteers have been pressed into action, with Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan assuring the people of the necessary aid and speaking to the governors of Adana, Malatya, Gaziantep, Diyarbakır, Hatay, Adıyaman, Osmaniye and Şanlıurfa — the cities where maximum damage has been caused — to discuss the situation.

The quake also prompted other countries to release aid and extend help, with United States assuring Turkiye of assistance. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan tweeted that the US was “profoundly concerned by today’s destructive earthquake in Turkiye and Syria,” and was “ready to provide any and all needed assistance”.

This destructive quake isn’t the first for Turkey and according to Stephen Hicks, a research fellow in seismology at Imperial College London, had the same magnitude as the one that killed about 30,000 people in December 1939 in northeast Turkey.

In fact, without too much doubt, I think today’s earthquake might go down as the joint largest – if not the largest – quake ever to be instrumentally recorded in Turkey. The previous largest event was an M7.8 quake in December 1939 in NE Turkey, close to the N. Anatolian Fault

— Stephen Hicks