The death toll from the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that hit eastern Turkey and northern Syria continues to rise dramatically.
At the moment, a still provisional figure, the number of dead is 5,016, of which 1,598 in Syria . According to a WHO estimate, the number of victims is destined to reach around 20,000.
And there is also an Italian among the missing. One of our compatriots - according to what we learn - is untraceable and was in one of the Turkish cities most affected by the earthquake. It was in a hotel that was completely destroyed .
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani also confirmed the news: «The Foreign Ministry's Crisis Unit has tracked down all the Italians who were in the area of the earthquake. But one. We are still looking for one of our compatriots in Turkey for work reasons. The Farnesina, up to now, has not been able to get in touch with him ».
"THE GROUND HAS MOVED AT LEAST THREE METERS"
One of the most violent earthquakes ever recorded in Turkey, a thousand times stronger than the one in Amatrice in 2016 and 30 times stronger than the one in Irpinia in 1980. The new fault that was activated yesterday caused a displacement of the ground up to at 10 meters.
Hundreds of aftershocks have occurred since the powerful quake: 43 those measuring 4.3 or greater, three measuring more than 6.0.
The earthquake occurred in a highly seismic area, the meeting point of the East Anatolian, Arabic and African plates, with the former being crushed by the Arabic plate and pushed west towards the Aegean. One of the two major faults that cross Turkey, the South-East Anatolian one, was activated , which «is one of the most active in the Middle East, together with that of the Dead Sea which crosses Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan and which separates the plate Arab from the African one», observes the president of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (Ingv), Carlo Doglioni.
"The biggest disaster since 1939," said Turkish President Recep Tayyup Erdogan bluntly . It refers to the Erzincan earthquake, which in 1939 caused the death of about 33,000 people. The 1999 earthquake in Izmit, magnitude 7.6, killed more than 17,000 people.
“I hope we will put these disastrous days behind us. Today is the day of 85 million hearts in a single beat,” said the Turkish leader, who proclaimed seven days of national mourning . The flags will fly at half-mast until Sunday 12 February.
In total darkness, a glimmer of light. In fact, 28 hours after the devastating quake, a woman and her three children were pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building in the Nizip district of Gaziantep .
Terremoto tra Turchia e Siria: centinaia di morti
(Unioneonline/L)