The European Union has activated this Monday the Civil Protection Mechanism to coordinate the response to the earthquake of magnitude 7.4 on the open Richter scale registered this morning in southern Turkey, near the border with Syria, which leaves at least 600 dead in both countries.
This has been confirmed by the Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, who said in a message on social networks that the EU Emergency Response Coordination Center is already coordinating the deployment of rescue teams from Europe, with the Netherlands and Romania being the first member states to offer assistance.
As explained by an EU spokesman, Ankara this morning requested assistance to the EU, which has already been attended by some member states and the European bloc has also activated the Copernicus earth observation program to monitor the situation via satellite.
In another message, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, expressed her condolences for those who died in the earthquake, as well as for those who were injured or buried.
«Deeply saddened after the terrible earthquake on the Turkish-Syrian border. Europe stands with the people of Turkey and Syria in this moment of anguish,» said the Maltese ‘popular’.
So far more than 280 dead and 2,300 wounded have been confirmed in Turkey, as well as about 240 dead and 640 wounded in areas of Syria controlled by the authorities. To these figures must be added more than 90 dead and 500 wounded in rebel-controlled areas in the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib, as detailed in statements to the German news agency DPA by the president of the Syrian American Medical Society, Basel Termanini.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
