5,600 buildings destroyed by quake in Turkey – as civil war complicates rescue efforts in Syria
More than 5,600 buildings in Turkey have been destroyed by yesterday’s powerful earthquake and aftershocks – as the long-running civil war in Syria complicates rescue efforts there.
At least 4,159 people have died across both countries – and officials fear that the number of fatalities will rise further.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake happened before dawn on Monday, when many people would have been sleeping.
And while rescuers have spent the night scouring rubble, bitterly cold weather could reduce the time they have to find survivors.
More than 7,800 people in Turkey have been rescued across 10 provinces so far – and crews from around the world have been making their way to the epicentre to help.
In Syria, the earthquake and subsequent tremors further weakened the foundations of buildings that have borne the brunt of shelling and airstrikes during a decade of unrest.
The latest figures suggest more than 13,000 in Turkey have been injured – and in the city of Iskenderun, there was an enormous pile of debris where an intensive care unit once stood.
“We have a patient who was taken into surgery but we don’t know what happened,” said Tulin, a woman in her 30s who was stood outside the hospital and wiping tears from her eyes.
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‘A long night’ for volunteers after earthquake
Desperate scenes
Tens of thousands have been left homeless across Turkey and Syria – and spent last night in the cold.
About 20 miles away from the epicentre of the earthquake in Gaziantep, people took refuge in shopping centres, mosques, stadiums and community centres.
In a rebel-held enclave of Syria, four million people were already displaced before the powerful tremors struck – and many live in buildings wrecked by military bombardments.
A mound of concrete and steel roads lay where a multi-storey building once stood in Aleppo, with a thin young man expressing fears that 12 families could be trapped.
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Flattened streets at earthquake’s epicentre
The Syrian White Helmets, a rescue service in rebel-held territory, said they were in a “race against time” to save the lives of all those under rubble.
Imran Bahur’s apartment building in the Turkish city of Adana was also destroyed. She said her 18-month-old grandson was on the 12th floor, and begged for help in rescuing him.
Search crews working in Diyarbakir, another Turkish city, occasionally raised their hands and called for quiet – listening for signs of life.
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War-torn Syria struggles after quake
Syria asks for help
Syria’s UN ambassador Bassam Sabbagh has requested help from the United Nations – receiving assurance that member states will do everything possible in this “very difficult situation”.
He went on to stress that the government is ready to help and coordinate aid deliveries “to all Syrians in all territories of Syria”.
But as well as harsh winter weather, damage to roads and fuel shortages have hampered the UN’s response to the earthquake there.
“The infrastructure is damaged, the roads that we used to use for humanitarian work are damaged, we have to be creative in how to get to the people… but we are working hard,” UN resident coordinator El-Mostafa Benlamlih told the Reuters news agency.
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Turkey-Syria earthquake explained
Erdogan declares seven days of national mourning
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken to his US counterpart Joe Biden.
The White House said Mr Biden underscored “the readiness of the United States to provide any and all needed assistance” to Turkey – a NATO ally.
Two, 79-person urban search and rescue teams have been deployed by Washington – and discussions are ongoing about other forms of relief, including health services.
Rescue workers from the UK, Czech Republic and Germany have also been making their way to the epicentre.
A famine has been declared in Gaza City and the surrounding neighbourhoods.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) – a globally recognised system for classifying the severity of food insecurity and malnutrition – has confirmed just four famines since it was established in 2004.
These were in Somalia in 2011, and in Sudan in 2017, 2020, and 2024.
The confirmation of famine in Gaza City is the IPC’s first outside of Africa.
“After 22 months of relentless conflict, over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions characterised by starvation, destitution and death,” the report said, adding that more than a million other people face a severe level of food insecurity.
Israel Gaza map
Over the next month conditions are also expected to worsen, with the famine projected to expand to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, the report said.
Nearly a third of the population (641,000 people) are expected to face catastrophic conditions while acute malnutrition is projected to continue getting worse rapidly.
Over the next year, the report said at least 132,000 children will suffer from acute malnutrition – double the organisation’s estimates from May 2024.
Israel says no famine in Gaza
Volker Turk, the UN Human Rights chief, said the famine is the direct result of actions taken by the Israeli government.
“It is a war crime to use starvation as method of warfare, and the resulting deaths may also amount to the war crime of wilful killing,” he said.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, has rejected the findings.
Israel’s foreign ministry said there is no famine in Gaza: “Over 100,000 trucks of aid have entered Gaza since the start of the war, and in recent weeks a massive influx of aid has flooded the Strip with staple foods and caused a sharp decline in food prices, which have plummeted in the markets.”
Another UN chief made a desperate plea to Israel’s prime minister to declare a ceasefire in the wake of the famine announcement.
Tom Fletcher, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said famine could have been prevented in the strip if there hadn’t been a “systematic obstruction” of aid deliveries.
“My ask, my plea, my demand to Prime Minister Netanyahu and anyone who can reach him. Enough. Ceasefire. Open the crossings, north and south, all of them,” he said.
The IPC had previously warned famine was imminent in parts of Gaza, but had stopped short of a formal declaration.
Palestinians struggle to get aid at a community kitchen in Gaza City. Pic: AP
The latest report on Gaza from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says there were almost 13,000 new admissions of children for acute malnutrition recorded in July.
The latest numbers from the Gaza health ministry are 251 dead as a result of famine and malnutrition, including 108 children.
But Israel has previously accused Hamas of inflating these figures, saying that most of the children who died had pre-existing health conditions.
The Ukrainian suspected of coordinating attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines had served in Ukraine’s Secret Service and in the Ukrainian Army’s special forces, Sky News understand.
Serhii K., 49, was arrested in northern Italy on Thursday following the issuance of a European arrest warrant by German prosecutors.
It is not known whether he was still serving at the time of the pipeline attack in 2022 and Ukraine’s government has always denied any involvement in the explosions.
According to sources close to the case, the suspect has been found in a three-star bungalow hotel named La Pescaccia in San Clemente, in the province of Rimini.
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Man arrested over Nord Stream attacks
When military officers from Italy’s Carabinieri investigative and operational units raided his bedroom, he didn’t try to resist the arrest.
The hotel’s employees have been questioned, but no further evidence or any weapons were found, the sources added.
Serhii arrived on Italy’s Adriatic coast earlier this week, and the purpose of his trip was a holiday. He was found with his two children and his wife.
At least one of the four people within his family had a travel ticket issued in Poland. He crossed the Italian border with his car with a Ukrainian license plate last Tuesday.
He was travelling with his passport, and he used his real identity to check into the hotel, triggering an emergency alert on a police server, we have been told.
A satellite image shows gas from the Nord Stream pipeline bubbling up in the Baltic Sea. File pic: Roscosmos via Reuters
After the arrest, he was taken to the Rimini police station before being moved to a prison in Bologna, the regional capital, on Friday.
Deputy Bologna Prosecutor Licia Scagliarini has granted the German judicial authorities’ requests for Serhii’s surrender, but Sky News understands the man told the appeal court that he doesn’t consent to being handed over to Germany.
He also denied the charges and said he was in Ukraine during the Nord Stream sabotage. He added that he is currently in Italy for family reasons.
While leaving the court, he was seen making a typical Ukrainian nationalist ‘trident’ gesture to the reporters.
The next hearing is scheduled for 3 September, when the Bologna appeal court is set to decide whether Serhii will be extradited to Germany or not. He will remain in jail until then.
In Germany, he will face charges of collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and the destruction of structures.
German prosecutors believe he was part of a group of people who planted devices on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022.
Serhii and his accomplices are believed to have set off from Rostock on Germany’s north-eastern coast in a sailing yacht to carry out the attack.
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The explosions severely damaged three pipelines transporting gas from Russia to Europe. It represented a significant escalation in the Ukraine conflict and worsening of the continent’s energy supply crisis.
According to a US intelligence report leaked in 2023, a pro-Ukraine group was behind the attack. Yet, no group has ever claimed responsibility.
Spare pipes for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. File pic: Reuters/Fabian Bimmer
Sky News understands Genoa’s Prosecutor’s Office in northern Italy has requested their colleagues in Bologna to share the information related to Serhii.
Anti-terrorism prosecutors are investigating another alleged sabotage linked to the Russian shadow fleet oil tanker Seajewel, which sank off the port of Savona last February.
On Thursday, they asked an investigative police unit to figure out whether there is a link between that episode and the Nord Stream attacks.
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