Around 700 buildings completely collapsed in Syria due to the earthquakes that struck Syrian and Turkish territories on Monday, according to several official sources.
In the opposition-controlled areas of Idlib and Aleppo, the hardest-hit provinces in the northwest of the country, at least 418 buildings collapsed due to the tremors that occurred on Monday and their subsequent aftershocks, the Syrian civil protection, known as cascos, announced today. whites, on the social network Twitter.
According to data from this organization, another 1,300 buildings suffered damage classified as serious and “thousands” have some type of damage in this region.
In Idlib, the last stronghold of the opposition in the country, and in areas of Aleppo controlled by various rebel groups, there are some three million internally displaced persons, almost three quarters of the total population, and 1.8 million of them live in informal settlements.
The first information suggests that most of the collapses occurred in urban centers, where some buildings were already weakened by the effects of the war that the country has been experiencing since 2011 and the lack of resources for repairs and maintenance work.
In this way, the tents in the camps for displaced persons would have prevented many from being crushed to death during the earthquakes.
On the other hand, in the areas of Aleppo controlled by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as well as in the provinces of Tartus, Latakia and Hama, also under his control in the northwest and west of the country, a total of 276 were registered. building collapses, Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous said on Wednesday.
Speaking during a field visit to Aleppo and reported by the official Syrian news agency SANA, Arnous added that the number of partially damaged buildings was “much higher.”
In Turkey, 6,444 buildings have collapsed in 10 southeastern provinces, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who on Wednesday acknowledged some teething problems for authorities in the rescue efforts.
The toll of the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria now exceeds 16,000 deaths, authorities and medical sources say today.
At least 12,873 people have died in Turkey and 3,162 in Syria, the same sources said, bringing the total death toll to 16,035, as operations continue, in extreme cold conditions, to try to find survivors.
In the two countries affected by the earthquake, more than 58,000 people were injured, many with fractures and other serious injuries.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria. It was followed by several aftershocks, one of which was magnitude 7.5.
International aid began arriving on Tuesday, with dozens of countries offering support to Ankara.
Source: TSF
