7.8-Magnitude Quake Hits Southern Turkey: USGS

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit near Gaziantep, in southeastern Turkey, at a depth of nearly 18 kilometers early Monday local time, the U.S. Geological Service said.

Another shallow 6.7-magnitude temblor happened near the site of the first quake about 15 minutes later, the USGS said.

Turkish authorities have not yet reported any deaths or injuries, but videos posted on social networks showed destroyed buildings in several cities in the southeast of the country.

Turkish state broadcaster TRT showed images of buildings that had been damaged and people standing outside in the snow, Reuters reported. The first quake lasted about a minute, according to the news agency.

Gaziantep, a key industrial and manufacturing hub, shares a border with Syria. According to Agence France-Presse, the tremors were felt in Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus.

Turkey is in one of the world’s most active earthquake zones.

In 1999, 17,000 people were killed when a a 7.4-magnitude earthquake — the worst to hit Turkey in decades — struck near Duzce, in the northwest of the country.

In October 2022, a magnitude-7.0 quake hit the Aegean Sea, killing 116 people and wounding more than 1,000. All but two of the victims were in Izmir, Turkey.

Some material for this article came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.