Deadly earthquake hit Turkey and Lebanon killing over 200 people, felt in Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt

A major earthquake of magnitude 7.9 struck central Turkey and northwest Syria early on Monday killing at least 284 people, over 2323 wounded in 10 provinces, collapsing dozens of buildings and triggering a search for survivors under the rubble in snowy streets.

The earthquake was strongly felt at a distance of almost 600 km from the epicenter in Turkey, Cyprus, Iraq, Georgia, Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt, causing a “small tsunamis” off the coast of Famagusta in Cyprus. No damages were reported in Cyprus, but, had there been an underwater landslide.

The earthquake was felt at 4:17am in the Gaziantep area of Turkey close to the Syrian border (3:17am in Cyprus). On Sunday in Cyprus, a 3.6 earthquake struck 25km northeast of coastal Paralimni of south Cyprus just after 8am at a depth of 35km.

Six aftershocks of over 5 magnitude on the Richter scale followed, which was also felt in Cyprus.

Early statements by officials suggested the death toll was at least 23 in Turkey’s Malatya province, 17 in Sanliurfa, six in Diyarbakir and five more in Osmaniye. South across the border in Syria, state media said 42 had been killed.

Damage was reported across several Turkish provinces, and rescue teams were sent from around the country.

At least 130 buildings tumbled down in Malatya province, Gov. Hulusi Şahin said. Authorities there have retrieved three bodies and around a hundred people have been hospitalized, he said. 

Syrian state media said more than 100 people were killed and dozens injured there, most in the provinces of Hama, Aleppo and Latakia, where numerous buildings had been brought down.“I have never felt anything like it in the 40 years I’ve lived,” said Erdem, a resident of the Turkish city of Gaziantep, near the quake’s epicentre, who declined to give his surname.

“We were shaken at least three times very strongly, like a baby in a crib.”

It was still too dark to see the nature of the damage, he added.

“Everybody is sitting in their cars, or trying to drive to open spaces away from buildings,” he said, speaking by telephone. “I imagine not a single person in Gaziantep is in their homes now.”

The tremor lasted about a minute and shattered windows, according to a Reuters witness in Diyarbakir, 350 km (218 miles)to the east, where a security official said at least 17 buildings collapsed.

Local authorities said 16 structures collapsed in Sanliurfa and 34 in Osmaniye.

People in Damascus, and in the Lebanese cities of Beirut and Tripoli, ran into the street and took to their cars to get away from their buildings in case they collapsed, witnesses said.

Tremors were also felt overnight in Ankara, 460 km (286 miles) northwest of the epicentre, and in Cyprus, where police reported no damage.

The area is regularly hit by strong earthquakes.

“The earthquake struck in a region that we feared. There is serious widespread damage,” Kerem Kinik, the chief of the Turkish Red Crescent relief agency, told Haberturk, issuing an appeal for blood donations.