Some of the most powerful Middle East earthquakes in decades killed more than 1,000 people in Turkey and Syria on Monday and forced a halt in crude oil flows to a regional export terminal.
A pre-dawn earthquake hit near the Turkish city of Gaziantep with a 7.7 magnitude, killing more than 1,000 people in Turkey and about 370 in Syria. Hours later, a second 7.5 temblor struck nearby and was felt in the Turkish capital Ankara, some 600 kilometers (375 miles) away.
“We’ve been shaken by the strongest disaster in a century,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. Speaking before the second quake, he said it was impossible to say what the death toll would rise to.
