Les secouristes cherchant des survivants à Diyarbakir, dans le sud-est de la Turquie, après le puissant séisme qui a ébranlé la région, dans la nuit de dimanche à lundi. Mahmut BOZARSLAN / AFPTV / AFP
BEIRUT- A 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit the southern Turkish town of Nurdagi, was felt across the Middle East region including Lebanon, Monday morning at around 3:20 am. The town is 450 km from Beirut and near Turkey's border with Syria.
At least five people were killed in the southern Turkish province of Osmaniye, the governor of the province said, quoted by the state-run Anadolu agency, in the middle of the night. According to the governor, Erdinç Yilmaz, 34 buildings were destroyed in the province.
The tremors were also felt in Syria, Iraq, Cyprus and other countries in the region. According to the National Geophysical Center of Lebanon, an undersea tremor, between Lebanon and Cyprus, of magnitude 4.8 on the Richter scale, was also recorded 160 km off the Lebanese coast.
Entire buildings collapsed in S. #Turkey the epicenter of 7.8 magnitude earthquake in last hour, that also sent shockwaves to Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Cyprus. We don’t know death toll yet: pic.twitter.com/A7fomc3AXT
— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) February 6, 2023
Many in Lebanon took to social media to express that the quake resurrected much of the trauma caused by the Aug. 4 Beirut blast. In several neighborhoods across the country, residents left their homes fearing another earthquake. Concerns were also expressed about the impact of the earthquake on the structure of already fragile buildings. At the American University of Beirut students were awaken by the quake with many rushing outside fearing another earthquake.
The last deadly quake in Lebanon was the 1956 Chim Earthquake which measured at 5.6 degrees on the Richter scale, destroying 6000 homes and killing 136 people.
On January 21, the National Geophysical Center of Lebanon had recorded two small earthquakes in Syrian territory, 31 kilometers from the city of Homs. The two earthquakes were felt by residents of some areas in Lebanon.
