At the scene in Turkey (Photo: AFP/VNA) Rome (VNA) – The Vietnamese Embassy in Turkey has contacted local authorities to find out if there were Vietnamese victims in the 7.8-magnitude earthquake in central Turkey and northwest Syria on early February 6 morning.
First Secretary of the Embassy Nguyen Phu Tan Huong said following the incident, the embassy immediately contacted the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ departments in charge of immigration and Asia-Pacific, police and authorities of 10 localities recording casualties, including Kahramanmaras, Adiyaman, Gaziantep, Hatay, Diarbakir, Kilis, Osmaniye, Sanliurfa, Adana and Malatya.
According to the latest report, Syria recorded 560 fatalities and over 1,089 injured victims in the strong earthquake with epicenter in central Turkey, while Turkey reported 912 deaths and more than 5,000 injuries.
Authorities are deploying search and rescue personnel and equipment to affected areas. Turkey has declared a level-4 state of emergency, requested international aid in response to the disaster, and suspended flights at Gaziante airport due to damage from the earthquake.
Huong said the earthquake took place in the early morning when most people were asleep so that the number of casualties may be higher. The Vietnamese Embassy is striving to gather information as soon as possible.
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the earthquake occurred at about 4:17am (local time) with the epicenter located 17.9 km in depth in Gaziantep province. It also detected another earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 that occurred about 15 minutes later near the first location.
As one of the world's most active earthquake zones, Turkey experienced several strong earthquakes in the past, including the one with a magnitude of 7.4 in 1999 that was the most severe in decades, resulting in over 17,000 fatalities. The most recent 7 magnitude earthquake occurred in October 2022 in Aegean, causing 114 deaths and over 1,000 injured./.
