The death toll in Turkey’s earthquake has risen to over two hundred, as per Government officials in Turkey.
A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 occurred on Monday, collapsing dozens of buildings, killing up to 76 people in seven Turkish provinces and causing aftershocks to be felt in Cyprus, Lebanon, and Syria.
440 people, according to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Agency, were hurt.
According to Syrian state media, which cited the Health Ministry, the death toll increased to 99 in areas of Syria that are still under government control.
In addition, Syria suffered at least 334 injuries. Earlier, 20 people were reported killed in rebel-held areas of Syria. This raises the overall death toll to 200 Turkey and Syria.
Turkey, a hotbed of seismic activity, sits on the Anatolian Plate, which borders two major faults as it grinds northeast against Eurasia. The North Anatolian fault traverses the country from west to east and the East Anatolian fault rests in the country’s southeastern region.
At magnitude 7.8, Monday’s quake had the same magnitude as one that killed about 30,000 people in December 1939 in northeast Turkey, Stephen Hicks, a research fellow in seismology at Imperial College London, wrote on Twitter.
Here are some other deadly earthquakes that have taken place along those fault lines in the past few decades.
October 2020
A magnitude 7 earthquake near Samos, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea near Turkey’s coast, killed at least 24 people in Turkey and caused more casualties in Greece.
January 2020
A magnitude 6.7 quake shook eastern Turkey, killing at least 22 people, injuring hundreds and causing tremors in Syria, Georgia and Armenia.
October 2011
A magnitude 7.2 earthquake in eastern Turkey killed at least 138 people and injured about 350. The quake was centered in Van Province, not far from the border with Iran, and it was felt strongly in nearby villages and some parts of northern Iraq.
March 2010
A magnitude 6.0 earthquake also struck eastern Turkey, killing 51 people. One village was largely destroyed and four others were heavily damaged. A second quake with a 5.6 magnitude subsequently hit the same area, among scores of aftershocks.
August 1999
A magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck the western Turkish city of Izmit killed more than 17,000 people.