Kathmandu, February 7. On Monday, Turkey and Syria were hit by three strong earthquakes with magnitudes above seven on the Richter scale.

More than 4,300 people have been confirmed dead, while an estimated 19,000 people have sustained injuries.

According to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), a 7.8 magnitude major earthquake jolted at 4:17 am local time, with the epicenter near the city of Gaziantep at the shallow of 17.9 kilometers under the earth.

• 11 Minutes later, a 6.7 magnitude major aftershock jolted the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras province.
• At 1:24 pm local time, the third earthquake of 7.6 magnitudes devastated the Kahramanmaras Province.

Since Monday morning, there have been at least 100 aftershocks with a magnitude of 4.0 or higher that have occurred within a 300-kilometer radius of the fault zone, stretching to Syria up through the province of Malatya.

Casualties

The chief of Turkey’s disaster services, Yunus Sezer, stated on Tuesday morning that there have been more than 2,921 deaths nationwide.

Sezer said during a news conference in Ankara that 15,834 injuries have been reported.

According to AFAD, a total of 5,606 buildings were damaged, and at least 6,445 individuals were rescued from the rubble.

Syrian officials have confirmed 1,451 deaths and 3,531 injuries in the country.