Damascus February 6 2023: Some 237 people have been killed and 639 injured in Syria in the powerful earthquake, assistant health minister Ahmed Dhamiriyeh has told state television.
The affected swath of Syria is divided between government-held and opposition-held areas.
In rebel-held northwest Syria, the opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense described the situation as “disastrous” adding that entire buildings have collapsed and people are trapped under the rubble.
Martin Mai, professor of geophysics at King Abdullah University, has told Al Jazeera that the death toll from “one of the largest earthquakes experienced [in the region] for hundreds of years” is likely to keep rising over the next days.
“In the past, these earthquakes in Turkey have led to about 13,000 fatalities owing to the style of building construction. The sheer size of this event will have a profound economic impact as well,” Mai said.