Live Update: More Than 2,000 Dead In Turkey And Syria After Major Earthquakes

A rescue operation is under way across much of southern Turkey and northern Syria following a huge earthquake that has killed more than 2,300 people
The 7.8 magnitude quake struck near Gaziantep in the early hours of Monday while people were asleep
A new 7.5-magnitude tremor hit at around 13:30 local time (10:30 GMT), which officials said was “not an aftershock”
The country’s disaster agency says some 1,500 people were killed in Turkey alone after the first quake, and more than 5,300 were wounded
Syrian authorities are reporting 810 dead and more than 2,000 injured, according to the AFP news agency
Rescuers are racing to save people trapped beneath the rubble after hundreds of buildings collapsed in both countries
World leaders have pledged to send aid after Turkey issued an international appeal for help
Millions of people across Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus and Israel felt the earthquake

UN observes silence for earthquake victims

The United Nations General Assembly is meeting in New York to discuss its priorities for 2023.

Before the session began it held a minute of silence for the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

Earlier, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said teams from the United Nations are “on the ground assessing the needs and providing assistance”.

Gökce Bay, who had a kidney transplant only on Sunday, was at the hospital in Gaziantep, Turkey, with a drip attached to her arm.

“I was on the second floor of the hospital when the earthquake started. I don’t even remember how I pulled the drip off my arm,” she says.

“It was so strong and I wanted to get out of the building. Everyone held on to each other to help, we all thought that we wouldn’t be able to make it and die. When we made it to the street, all of us started crying.

“We survived but we were all in-patients and we were out in the very cold weather. I had a kidney operation only yesterday and now I am out with my flip flops under the rain, my feet are soaking wet. Not only me, some very old patients are out without any jackets or shoes.”

Quote Message: Some old patients with wheelchairs couldn’t even move to go out, so the nurses came for help. Some nurses are still in the hospital to take care of the patients that are in intensive care.” from Gökce Bay

As we’ve been reporting, at least 810 people have been killed in Syria as a result of Monday’s earthquake in neighbouring Turkey, and we have more on where those people were:

At least 430 people died and 1,315 were injured in government-controlled parts of Syria, according to its health ministry, the AFP news agency reports
In rebel-held territory in the north-west, at least 380 were killed and more than 1,000 injured, according to the humanitarian group The White Helmets
The organisation says more than 133 buildings have collapsed, and 272 are partially destroyed

The White Helmets, which operates in rebel-controlled areas of Syria, says the death toll may increase as “hundreds of families are still trapped”.

Syria descended into civil war in 2011, which left half a million people dead and caused a lasting humanitarian crisis.

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