Dramatic Footage of Building Collapse Hours after Earthquake in Turkey

Video footage emerged from Turkey of a building collapsing hours after the massive earthquake struck in the southeast of the country.

The building was in the city of Urfa, officially known as Sanlıurfa, near the epicenter of the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that hit east of Nurdagi, Gaziantep province.

In #Sanliurfa the moment a building collapsed recorded by mobile phone hours after 7.8 #earthquake hits Turkey. #deprem pic.twitter.com/YDc8DH9lbn

— JournoTurk (@journoturk) February 6, 2023

It is not known whether any people were inside the building when it collapsed from aftershocks that followed the main quake.

🇹🇷❗️Houses continue to collapse after the earthquake in Turkey, the footage shows the moment of collapse in the city of Sanliurfa. pic.twitter.com/rmFkhrGb59

— Zlatti71 (@djuric_zlatko) February 6, 2023

The death toll has risen to 284 from an earthquake that shook Turkey’s south early on Monday, with 2,323 people injured, vice president Fuat Oktay told a news conference.

The Syrian health ministry says 237 people have been killed in the country – across the government-held provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Tartus. More than 600 people are injured, the ministry says.

Turkey is on an active earthquake zone

Situated on or near several fault lines, Turkey is one of the world’s most active earthquake zones.

Most of the country is located on the Anatolian tectonic plate, which sits between two major plates – the Eurasian and African – and another minor one, the Arabian. As the two large plates shift, Turkey is essentially squeezed, experts say.

That means quakes and tremors are a fairly common experience. The country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) recorded over 22,000 in 2022.

And many are deadly – the worst on record was a 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck İzmit in 1999, killing more than 17,000 people.