Residents of southern Turkey and northern Syria woke up at dawn yesterday, Monday, to a massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake, and while rescuers were working under the rubble, the survivors found themselves homeless and under the snow, and this is how some of them described what happened to them.

The horror of this earthquake made Melissa Salman, a 23-year-old Turkish journalist residing in the city of Kahramanmaraş, say that she thought the hour had come. We are witnessing a similar thing to what happened to us this morning... We thought it was the end of the world."

In her turn, Tolin Akkaya, who is in her 30s, described the panic that she felt when she felt "strongly" the tremors of the earthquake while she was on the top floor of the building she lives in in the Cayapinar district of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey, saying: "We went out in a state of panic. It was raining." It's coming down profusely.. Now I'm so scared.. I can't go back to my apartment, and I don't know what the future holds."

As for the worker, Khalis Aktemur, (35 years old), who volunteered to provide assistance to the rescuers working on the ruins of a building in Diyarbakir, he confirmed to the agency that other victims are still waiting for someone to rescue them, saying, "I managed to save 3 people alive. But I also carried two bodies.. No." I can go home, I will stay here to help in case rescue teams need my services.”


The French newspaper Le Figaro says that the pictures, which were transmitted by televisions and social networks, provide an overview of the extent of the damage caused by this earthquake.

And she adds that the Turkish authorities have sent rescue teams to the spot and are busy trying to find survivors under the rubble, highlighting in this regard what Turkish Interior Minister Suleiman Soylu told reporters, "Our primary task is to carry out search and rescue operations, and for this reason all our teams are on alert," and he mentioned A rescuer told NTV yesterday that the teams "hear the voices of victims here and there and think maybe 200 people are under the rubble".

Le Figaro adds that the Turkish city of Gaziantep was particularly affected by this earthquake, and quotes Ahmed, one of its residents, as saying, describing what happened to him: "I felt my bed was shaking. I wanted to get up for shelter, but the bed was swaying in all directions, and this continued." For a few seconds, but it seemed like an eternity to me."

As for what happened in Syria, the newspaper quoted the head of the Union of Relief Organizations and Medical Care (UOSSM-USA), Dr. Khawla Al-Sawah, as saying: “The news from there is terrifying and heartbreaking, as the infrastructure was already dilapidated due to years of war and bombing, and we are in dire need of help.” To save the lives of those injured in this powerful earthquake.

In Lebanon, which was not affected by the earthquake, a female tourist says on the phone to Figaro that she "first expected that what happened was an attack" before realizing that the earth was shaking.