Turkey-Syria quake toll rises above 2,300

Istanbul/Damascus: The death toll in Monday morning's devastating earthquake in the Turkey-Syria border area has crossed over 2,300, reports said. The death toll in Turkey has risen again to 1,498, according to the country's disaster management agency, and 810 in Syria, the BBC reported.

The 7.8 magnitude quake struck near Turkey's Gaziantep early on Monday (local time) while a new 7.5-magnitude tremor hit at around 1.30 p.m. local time and was described, by officials, as a new quake, "not an aftershock".

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent messages of condolence to his Turkish and Syrian counterparts Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Bashar al Assad and said his government was ready to help. Russian rescue teams have been sent to both countries to assist at the disaster sites, RT reported.

Other countries like Azerbaijan, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Serbia, Spain, the UK and the US have also offered help.

Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad held an emergency meeting with his cabinet to discuss the repercussions of the earthquake. The devastating temblor came as the region was under a snowstorm expected to continue until Thursday. As a result of the quake, explosion occurred on a gas pipeline in Turkey's southern province of Hatay. The state-owned energy company BOTAS has suspended natural gas flow to southern Gaziantep, Hatay and Kahramanmaras provinces. Monday's earthquake is believed to be the strongest in Turkey since the magnitude 7.9 temblor that hit eastern Erzincan province in 1939, which killed 33,000 people.(IANS)