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Situation
On Monday 6th February 2023, southeast Türkiye was hit by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake at 04:17 local time, the most powerful to strike the country since 1939. The epicentre was near Ataler in Gaziantep Province. As authorities were responding, a second 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck just hours later at 13:30 local time with an epicentre at Ekinozu in the same region. These two earthquakes alone resulted in over 7,000 aftershocks.
This week, another 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck in Antakya on 20 February at around 21:30. There were a small number of deaths and some minor injuries, but mainly it resulted in panic and psychological trauma due to the ongoing major aftershocks.
In discussions with Dr. Sebnem Fincanci of the Turkish Medical Association who visited the HF medical team In Osmaniye, she indicated her appreciation at our support but also that 96 local doctors are confirmed to have died with many others missing just on the Turkish side, and there will be a similar picture in Syria.
At this stage, the total number of confirmed fatalities is believed to be over 50,000, with many more still missing and the number of injuries is estimated to be 120,000.