New Delhi: A massive earthquake in Turkiye, which claimed more than 2,500 lives and left thousands injured has split the Hatay Airport runway into two. A video shared on the Internet shows that the only runway in Hatay province is completely shattered and destroyed due to the earthquake.
#Hatay airport runway is out of service due to the strong earthquake. pic.twitter.com/7RvDjBWe3l
— Barzan Sadiq (@BarzanSadiq) February 6, 2023
Earlier on Monday, an earthquake of magnitude 7.7 centered in the Pazarcik district jolted Kahramanmaras and hit several provinces, including Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Adana, Adiyaman, Malatya, Osmaniye, Hatay, and Kilis, as per the Anadolu Agency report.
Later in the day, an earthquake of 7.6 magnitude centered in Kahramanmaras’s Elbistan district jolted the region. The earthquake was also felt in several neighboring countries, including Lebanon and Syria.
The death toll in Turkiye and Syria has reached more than 3,800 after earthquakes jolted the two nations on Monday. The total number of injured in Syria and Turkiye has reached 15,914 following earthquakes, as reported by the news agency ANI.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the disaster was the worst the country had seen since 1939, when the Erzincan earthquake in eastern Turkiye killed nearly 33,000 people.
Rescue operations were hampered by a winter blizzard that covered major roads with snow, AFP reported. Officials said the quake made three major airports in the area inoperable, further complicating deliveries of vital aid.
Offers of help from search-and-rescue teams to medical supplies and financial aid poured in from dozens of countries, including India as well as the European Union and NATO.
India said it would dispatch search and rescue teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), medical teams, and relief material to Turkiye. Two teams of the NDRF, comprising 100 personnel, with specially trained dog squads were being flown to the middle eastern country. Turkiye is situated in one of the world’s most active earthquake zones, with land stretching over the Anatolian fault line in the north of the country that has caused destructive tremors in the past.