Connect with us

CBS News

Major 7.8 earthquake rocks Turkey and Syria, killing more than 600

Avatar

Published

on


Turkey Earthquake
People and rescue teams try to reach trapped residents in collapsed buildings in Adana, Turkey, on Feb. 6, 2023 after a powerful quake knocked down multiple buildings in southeast Turkey and Syria.

IHA agency via AP


A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southern Turkey and northern Syria early Monday, toppling buildings and killing at least 641 people. With hundreds upon hundreds injured and hundreds more believed trapped under rubble, the toll was expected to rise as rescue workers combed through rubble in cities and towns across the region.

On both sides of the border, residents jolted out of sleep by the pre-dawn quake rushed outside on a cold, rainy and snowy winter night. Buildings were flattened and strong aftershocks continued.

Rescue workers and residents raced to search for survivors under the rubble of their homes in multiple cities, working through tangles of metal and chunks of concrete.

Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management agency said at least 284 people were killed in seven Turkish provinces. The agency said 440 people were injured. The death toll in government-held areas of Syria climbed to 237 with more than 630 injured, according to Syrian state media. At least 120 people were killed in rebel-held areas, according to the White Helmets, the emergency organization in opposition areas.

In the Turkish city of Adana, one resident said three buildings near his home collapsed. “I don’t have the strength anymore,” one survivor could be heard calling out from beneath the rubble as rescue workers tried to reach him, said the resident, journalism student Muhammet Fatih Yavus. Further east in Diyarbakir, cranes and rescue teams rushed people on stretchers out of a mountain of pancaked concrete floors that was once an apartment building.

On the Syrian side of the border, the quake smashed opposition-held regions that are packed with some 4 million people displaced from other parts of Syria by the country’s long civil war. Many of them live in decrepit conditions with little health care, with Russian-backed Syrian forces surrounding the area and sometimes carrying out airstrikes. Rescue workers said hospitals in the area were packed.

“We fear that the deaths are in the hundreds,” Muheeb Qaddour, a doctor, said by phone from the town of Atmeh, referring to the entire rebel-held area. Raed Salah, the head of the White Helmets, said whole neighborhoods were collapsed in some areas.

The quake, felt as far away as Cairo, struck a region that has been shaped by more than a decade of civil war in Syria. Millions of Syrian refugees live in Turkey. The swath of Syria affected by the quake is divided between government-held territory and the country’s last opposition-held enclave, which is surrounded by Russian-backed government forces. The quake was centered about 60 miles from the Syrian border outside the city of Gaziantep, a major Turkish provincial capital.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was 11 miles deep.  

At least 20 aftershocks followed, some hours later during daylight, the strongest measuring 6.6, Turkish authorities said.

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan issued a statement saying, “The United States is profoundly concerned by the reports of today’s destructive earthquake in Turkiye and Syria. We stand ready to provide any and all needed assistance. President Biden has directed USAID and other federal government partners to assess U.S. response options to help those most affected. We will continue to closely monitor the situation in coordination with the Government of Turkiye.”

Many other nations offered to help as well. Among them: France, Germany, Greece and — war-torn Ukraine, whose president, Volodomyr Zelenskyy, said Ukraine is “close to the friendly Turkish people” and ready to provide assistance, the Reuters news service reported.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Twitter that “search and rescue teams were immediately dispatched” to the areas hit by the quake.

“We hope that we will get through this disaster together as soon as possible and with the least damage,” he wrote.

Turkey’s defense ministry said Turkish armed forces set an air corridor to enable search and rescue teams to get to the quake zone, according to Reuters.

The Turkish maritime authority said the port of Iskenderun in southern Turkey was damaged by the quake but operations were continuing at other ports, Reuters reported.

Oil was flowing as usual through two major pipelines in Turkey, Reuters said, citing an energy official but adding that operations at the Ceyhan oil terminal in southern Turkey were suspended, according to the Tribeca shipping agency.

A gas pipeline was damaged and the flow of gas was stopped to three provinces and areas near them, Reuters quoted Turkish state pipeline operator BOTAS as saying.

Turkey’s Akkuyu nuclear power plant, which is being built, wasn’t damaged by the quake, Reuters cites an official of the Russian company constructing the plant as saying.

Buildings were reported collapsed in a swath from Syria’s cities of Aleppo and Hama to Turkey’s Diyarbakir, more than 200 miles to the northeast.

In Turkey, people trying to leave the quake-stricken regions caused traffic jams, hampering efforts of emergency teams trying to reach the affected areas. Authorities urged residents not to take to the roads. Mosques around the region were being opened up as a shelter for people unable to return to damaged homes amid temperatures that hovered around freezing.

In Diyarbakir, rescue teams called for silence as they tried to listen for survivors under the wreckage of an 11-story building. Rescue workers pulled out one man, carrying him on a stretcher through a dense crowd of hundreds of people anxiously watching the rescue efforts. A gray-haired woman wailed before being escorted away by a man, while a rescue worker wearing a white helmet tried to calm a crying girl who was also being cuddled by two friends.

In northwest Syria, the opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense described the situation in the rebel-held region as “disastrous” adding that entire buildings have collapsed and people are trapped under the rubble. The civil defense urged people to evacuate buildings to gather in open areas. Emergency rooms were full of injured, said Amjad Rass, president of the Syrian American Medical Society.

In Damascus, buildings shook and many people went down to the streets in fear.

The quake jolted residents in Lebanon from beds, shaking buildings for about 40 seconds. Many residents of Beirut left their homes and took to the streets or drove in their cars away from buildings.

The earthquake came as the Middle East is experiencing a snowstorm that’s expected to continue until Thursday.

Turkey sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes.

Some 18,000 were killed in powerful earthquakes that hit northwest Turkey in 1999. 



Read the original article

Leave your vote

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings

CBS News

What exit polls show about the gender gap in the 2024 presidential race

Avatar

Published

on


What exit polls show about the gender gap in the 2024 presidential race – CBS News


Watch CBS News



CBS News senior White House and political correspondent Ed O’Keefe explains how the gender gap played a role in the 2024 presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Be the first to know

Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.




Read the original article

Leave your vote

Continue Reading

CBS News

Donald Trump projected to win 2024 presidential election. Here’s what to know

Avatar

Published

on


Donald Trump projected to win 2024 presidential election. Here’s what to know – CBS News


Watch CBS News



CBS News projects former President Donald Trump to win the 2024 presidential election, surpassing the 270 electoral votes needed. Trump won multiple battleground states, including Georgia and Pennsylvania, both of which Biden secured in 2020.

Be the first to know

Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.




Read the original article

Leave your vote

Continue Reading

CBS News

Stocks roar out of the gate after Donald Trump election win

Avatar

Published

on


What Trump’s projected win and election results mean for balance of power – Expert analysis


What Trump’s projected win and election results mean for balance of power – Expert analysis

05:46

Stocks and other financial assets are surging after Donald Trump was projected as the winner of the U.S. presidential election  and the Republican party gained control of the Senate.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up more than 1,200 points, or nearly 3%, in early trading Wednesday, while the broader S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite each gained more than 2%.

Many investors expect Trump’s victory to lead to faster economic growth and more market-friendly policies.

“The markets are scrambling to figure out what happens next, but for the time being, the market is pricing in a higher growth and higher inflation outlook,” Peter Esho of Esho Capital said.

The price of bitcoin jumped nearly 8% to a record $75,345 before falling back slightly. Trump pledged support for cryptocurrencies during the campaign. Shares of the crypto exchange Coinbase rose 18% and almost all cryptocurrencies surged higher, including dogecoin, which jumped 17%.

Bank stocks, which could benefit from less restrictive regulations, rose in premarket trading. JPMorgan, the world’s biggest bank by assets, gained nearly 7%. Capital One rose 11.3%.

Tesla, led by Trump supporter Elon Musk, jumped nearly 13%. The company’s size gives it a big advantage in the electric vehicle market if, as expected, Trump does away with rebates and tax incentives for electric vehicles, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. Shares of Tesla’s competitors largely fell.

Trump is likely to undo some of the Biden administration’s effort to fight climate change. Renewable energy stocks such as First Solar and Enphase were down by double-digits in premarket trading. First Solar has been a big beneficiary of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.

Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, expects a Republican-led Congress to extend personal tax cuts passed in 2017 during the first Trump administration, while also pushing up federal spending. President-elect Trump is also likely to use “his presidential powers to reduce immigration and impose targeted tariffs on China, Mexico, Canada and the European Union,” Sweet told investors in a report. 


Analyst Dr. Suzanne Chod on what contributed to Trump’s victory

05:17

Trump has vowed to sharply raise tariffs on imports from China and other countries, darkening the outlook for Chinese exporters at a time when Beijing has relied heavily on ramping up manufacturing to try to revive its slowing economy.

Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind the former president’s Truth Social platform, spiked 36% overnight as it became increasingly evident that Trump was returning to the highest elected office in the U.S.

“Undoubtedly, we are seeing a clear consensus among investors that President Trump would herald higher Federal Reserve rates, weaker global growth and greater geopolitical uncertainty, all of which is bullish for the dollar,” said Matthew Ryan, head of Market Strategy at the global financial services firm Ebury.

The broad U.S. stock market has historically tended to rise regardless of which party wins the White House, even if each party’s policies can help and hurt different industries’ profits.

The S&P 500 has risen nearly 70% since the 2020 election brought President Joe Biden into office. It rallied to records as the U.S. economy bounced back from the COVID-19 pandemic and managed to avoid a recession despite a jump in inflation.

The economy was a key issue for inflation-weary U.S. voters who chose Trump this time around, though mainstream economists have said Trump’s policy proposals would make inflation worse.

contributed to this report.



Read the original article

Leave your vote

Continue Reading

Copyright © 2024 Breaking MN

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.