3,500 Confirmed Dead After Huge Earthquake in Turkey and Syria

• Earthquakes in southern and eastern Turkey struck in the early hours on Monday
• Follow live updates on the Turkish earthquakes with MailOnline’s live blog here 
• WARNING: Contains distressing images

By MATTHEW LODGE and CHRIS JEWERS FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 22:07 AEDT, 6 February 2023 | UPDATED: 10:02 AEDT, 7 February 202

At least 3,500 people are confirmed to have died after two catastrophic earthquakes devastated parts of Turkey and Syria on Monday.

Thousands more fatalities are feared in the coming days after 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude tremors in southeastern Turkey caused buildings to collapse on people as they slept in their beds in the early hours of the morning. 

Witnesses describe being ‘shaken like a cradle’ as the first severe quake struck, the fallout of which has left many people homeless as winter snowstorms and freezing temperatures

Victims trapped in collapsed buildings have been pleading for help as rescuers desperately try to free them – with some people even broadcasting on Facebook Live while trapped to try and get aid.

Heartbreaking photos and videos have shown emergency services pulling the bodies of children from the rubble in multiple cities, as well as miraculous rescues with people somehow being carried out alive after the catastrophe.

Devastating moment buildings collapse after earthquake hits Turkey

Pictured: A young boy is pulled from the rubble in Syria on Monday. With temperatures set to fall to near freezing overnight, rescuers across Turkey and Syria are now in a desperate race against time to reach scores of survivors who remain trapped under collapsed buildings and who are at risk of freezing to death before help arrives

Rescuers pull a victim alive from a collapsed building in Diyarbakir on Monday after the earthquakes

Pictured: Search and rescue workers search through the rubble of a collapsed 15-storey building in Kahramanmaras, Turkey on Monday evening, as the light begins to fade

Rescue workers search for survivors in a collapsed building in Diyarbakir earlier today

A woman hugs and cries as emergency services continue to search for survivors in Hatay on Monday

Pictured: A Syrian man weeps as he carried the body of his son, who was killed in an earthquake that struck in the early hours on Monday morning, in the town of Jandaris

SYRIA: Residents retrieve an injured girl from the rubble of a collapsed building in the town of Jandaris, in the countryside of Syria’s northwestern city of Afrin in the rebel-held part of Aleppo province, on February 6. Rescue workers are desperately searching for survivors after the earthquakes struck across the region

This is moment a building collapsed in the city of Malatya in eastern Anatolia, Turkey, following today’s earthquake. In the foreground a member of the public can be seen running for cover

Distraught residents cry for help after being trapped in earthquake

Tremors from the first deadly quake – which lasted about a minute – were felt as far away as the island of Cyprus, Egypt and Lebanon, and a tsunami warning was briefly issued by authorities in Italy along the country’s coast. The second quake struck about 60 miles from the epicentre of the first, less than 12 hours later

Christian Atsu rescued from rubble of building after Turkey earthquake

24.2k viewing nowTurkey and Syria earthquake today LIVE: Latest news and death toll82.1k viewing nowHuge Turkish earthquake was felt as far away as GREENLAND 20.6k viewing now

Monday’s earthquakes were felt in multiple countries across the Middle East, with Turkey and its war-torn southern neighbour Syria the worst affected.

At least 3,500 people in both countries are known to have been killed – 2,316 of these in Turkey, more than 700 people in opposition-controlled Syria and 538 in government-held areas of Syria, reports Sky.

In Turkey entire apartment blocks crashed to the ground in a matter of seconds following the quakes, trapping families inside and killing thousands.

In Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey, a woman speaking next to the wreckage of the seven-storey block where she lived said: ‘We were shaken like a cradle. There were nine of us at home. Two sons of mine are still in the rubble, I’m waiting for them.’ 

‘It was like the apocalypse,’ said Abdul Salam al-Mahmoud, a Syrian in the northern town of Atareb. ‘It’s bitterly cold and there’s heavy rain, and people need saving.’ 

 The United States Geological Survey, which has recorded more than 60 earthquakes and aftershocks in the region in the last 24 hours, warned that fatalities from the quakes could reach as high as 10,000.

Countries from across the world have offered aid, with rescue workers from Europe, Asia and the Americas all flying in to help the efforts of the emergency services.

Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared seven days of national mourning, while buildings in Israel and Bosnia have been lit up in memory of those who have died.

The United States Geological Survey has reported detecting more than 60 tremors over 2.5 in magnitude in the area in the last 24 hours

Building collapses in Turkey after 7.8-magnitude earthquake