A powerful earthquake jolted Turkey and Syria and claimed the lives of over 1,400 people. Scientists have called it the most powerful earthquake in over a century, which also destroyed buildings and sent shocks as far away as Greenland. The 7.8-magnitude nighttime tremor, which was followed hours later by a slightly lesser one, completely destroyed portions of major Turkish cities. Due to the destruction caused by the earthquake one of the runways of the Hatay International Airport serving the cities of Antakya and Iskenderun in Turkey became unoperational.


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The video of the completely destroyed runway because of the tremors was shared on social media by the people present on site. The video showed the destroyed tarmac uplifted because of the tremors. Hence, the runway has been closed for flight operations.


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Meanwhile, through piles of metal and concrete, rescuers and locals in many cities looked for survivors. Patients, including babies, were evacuated from facilities in Syria after a hospital in Turkey collapsed.



Cairo was also affected by the earthquake, which had its epicentre north of Gaziantep, the Turkish province capital. It occurred in a territory that has been affected by Syria's civil conflict for more than ten years on both sides of the border.


Major fault lines run through the area, which frequently experiences earthquakes. A similar powerful earthquake that struck northwest Turkey in 1999 killed about 18,000 people.


The quake on Monday was rated as 7.8 by the US Geological Survey. A 7.5 magnitude one struck few hours later, more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) away. Although its consequences were not immediately obvious, a disaster management agency official in Turkey stated it was a new earthquake and not an aftershock. Orhan Tatar informed reporters that hundreds of aftershocks were anticipated in the wake of the two earthquakes.


With Inputs from agencies