More than 4000 Dead Uncountable Injured so Far

Fourth Major Quake of 5.6 Magnitude Hits Turkey on Tuesday Morning. Turkish President Erdogan has declared a 7-day national mourning in the country following a powerful pre-dawn earthquake in the country’s southern region which claimed the lives of over 4000 people in Turkey and Syria. India has dispatched the first batch of earthquake relief material to Turkey aboard an Indian Air Force aircraft, said MEA on Tuesday.

ISTANBUL: Fourth Major Quake of 5.6 Magnitude Hits Turkey on Tuesday morning. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared a 7-day national mourning in the country following a powerful pre-dawn earthquake in the country’s southern region which claimed the lives of over 4000 people in Turkey and Syria. India has dispatched the first batch of earthquake relief material to Turkey aboard an Indian Air Force aircraft, said MEA on Tuesday. The move came hours after the announcement made by the Prime Minister’s Office to provide relief assistance to the earthquake-hit nation. Meanwhile, rescuers in Turkey and war-ravaged Syria are still searching for survivors trapped under the rubble hours after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed thousands and toppled thousands of buildings across a wide region. Authorities fear the death toll from Monday’s pre-dawn earthquake and aftershocks would keep climbing as rescuers looked for survivors among tangles of metal and concrete spread across the region beset by Syria’s 12-year civil war and refugee crisis. Turkey was hit by three consecutive devastating earthquakes of magnitude 7.8, 7.6 & 6.0.

The earthquake is the largest ever to hit Turkey in at least 100 years, the news agency AFP reported. In Turkey, entire sections of cities populated by Syrian refugees have been wiped out. The earthquake struck near Gaziantep, a Turkish city with a population of around 2 million. More than 40 aftershocks followed and they were felt even in Egypt and Cyprus.

US President Joe Biden and top world leaders called on Erdogan to express their condolences and offer assistance to the NATO ally. The White House said it was sending search-and-rescue teams to support Turkey’s efforts. The quake, which was centered on Turkey’s southeastern province of Kahramanmaras, sent residents of Damascus and Beirut rushing into the street and was felt as far away as Cairo