ah, was there another symbolic meaning to this beautiful dating that perhaps we just don't understand? a switch for answers store to february 10th on d, w ah ah, this is dw news live from berlin. the frantic search for survivors and turkey and syria, after the region is hit by massive earthquakes, rescue crews managed to pull people alive from the ruins of their collapsed houses . but more than 4000 are known to have died. in syria,

the relief effort is complicated by the side effects of years of civil war. the country's economy and infrastructure are already in totters. plus, international relief efforts get underway. countries from around the world are sending rescue teams and supplies to be effected regions. ah, i'm pablo foley. yes, welcome to the program. to powerful earthquakes on the turkish syrian border have killed more than 4000 people. rescue efforts are ongoing, but the death toll is expected to rise further. the initial 7.8 magnitude tremor was centered north of the turkish city of gassy. on tip it colace destruction stretching along turkey, southern border from the mediterranean eastwards, also affect

to protect what remains of his business and earthquake happen. so we're out here because of the earthquake, we'll spend the night here. so a furniture doesn't get looted. like ost ambulance is rush, survive is to hospital. the search for life goes on.

but as i was turning to days, there were fi is these bitter sweet moments of rescue will give way to an ever rising number of dead while the earthquakes also caused devastation in northern parts of syria near the turkish border. the tremors stroke, parts of the country that are already facing a crisis. after years of brutal civil war. in serious norse, the devastation is evident. ah. the quaker levelled entire buildings killing sleeping residence in the early morning hours in rebel held it. let province residents describe it as the strongest earthquake they had experienced in their lifetimes above what are those now by the

law. we went through horrifying moments and us building at 4 in the morning is as and we've never witnessed an earthquake like this. thoughts of buildings of collapse, of my family and i survived and the neighbors did too, but 5 people died here with sophia comes with us hosanna. and the situation was so intensely it felt like judgment a day. well that was said the calendar. you'll know. he only, they say the quick here went on for about a minute and a half. what followed was destruction on a scope that is proving difficult for volunteers from the syrian civil defense to manage on their own. they are still carrying out rescue operations, but supplies are running out fast. oh, about from of you yell of about bill that for you give, shall i? serious situation is very bad. the people of northern syria witness to real catastrophe today. but another device of the civil defense are still rescuing people,

shall there still pulling out the corpses from under debris value. so this will take many hours and days will that get many hospitals can't take anymore patients within much every mile on that some stuff but well amadi and aleppo residence work alongside rescue workers clearing the rubble of damage buildings and trying to break shoes, cement, to rescue those still trapped underneath many remain outside in the streets in the cold. fearing buildings could collapse either from the damage already sustained or from after shops expected to follow. we're scared for the children. we went back home and there was another creek. so we went back into the street rescue workers have miraculously saved many from under the rubble, but as the body bags multiply, local communities are grappling with the loss that came so abruptly in the middle the night. now what caused the earthquake turkey lies on several tectonic plates,

which makes it a hotspot fort seismic activity. the country sits between 3 major tectonic lights. the african arabian, and your asian, the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck turkey and syria on monday. kirk cause to a more than 100 kilometer rupture along the anatolia and arabian plates. will austin elliott is an earthquake geologist at the earthquake science center of the us geological survey in california? and i asked him earlier, how the, how prone the area is to quakes, and what is it about these ones that make them so deadly? turkey is one of the world's most earthquake brown countries, and there are widely known and well understood seismic hazards zones that run along the north and the eastern edge of this country and the earthquake this morning happened along the eastern, a toy, and 4 eyes recognised as one of the big major lea boundaries there in the region

amended 7.8 was approaching the largest earthquakes we expect within the continents . and so this truly represents a significant event, scientifically. so often this is basically a massive earthquake in order. in other words, now there were also reports of for shock. so shocked before at the quakes actually hit. does that mean that there was actually a chance for people to have been saved if they'd actually reacted immediately after those shocks had been felt? well there was, as we understand, there was a magnitude 4.6 earthquake, 3 days ago i happened february 3rd. that alone would definitely not have been enough of a sort of warning to learn anyone that something more significant was on the way made magnitude for the lakes happened all over this region and around the world all

the time. and most of them are not followed by larger. so unfortunately, today we still don't have a way of predicting the timing of any subsequent earthquakes. what we do understand is how aftershock sequence. and as we see today, they can be quite vigorous. so we, we've already seen scores hundreds of after socks with strong shaking in the wake of this managed $7.00, as well as, of course demanded them point 5, which with something of its own earthquake in its own right on a neighboring salt. so awesome, just so we're clear to, if you can understand how things sort of function after a big event like the ones that we've seen earlier. does that mean that the threat of more quakes is high at the moment?

certainly so after a large earthquake, the rate of all other sizes of earthquakes increases, that's essentially what aftershocks are. and so for the most part, we're seeing those after sauce occurring right in the immediate vicinity of the false that produce this magnitude $78.00. additionally, as i mentioned, the magnitude 7.5 ruptured neighboring adjacent. it's sort of having its own aftershock sequence over time and after socks will become less frequent, but they don't necessarily get smaller. so the potential for large earthquakes will persist the likelihood of a nother large, really larger, like the 2 we've seen is quite low. i can't be rolled out. and anyone who lives in earthquake pro, an area like this sort of has to reckon with the reality that large earthquakes are a possibility. we've seen the images, we're seeing the images come in. we're seeing this death toll,

which is absolutely awful. what can be done to better prepare these regions? like you say they have to basically they're used to, you know, earthquake events or in areas where earthquakes happen. so what can they do to actually be better prepared? yeah, well fundamentally, there are a few different things at different levels that are required for earthquake preparedness and for writing through these safely or sort of well as a society. one of the really big important factors as we can see in the photos, is the construction of building how they're made. what goes into the design elements and that varies around the world. and there are a lot of different considerations that lead to different standards of design, different expectations about how things shape perform. so they're really big challenges around both changing building code,

but also then changing the building doc to respond in response to those codes. the other factors are maybe a little bit more within people's control, and that's, you know, take the examples of what you're seeing on tv now. and although they are very hard to witness, and the harrowing to, to watch people in our pro, regions should consider to themselves if we know what sort of earthquake to anticipate like these ones. right. what, what i want to be prepared with austin elliott, an earthquake geologist joining us from california. thank you. thank you. the international response to the earthquake is gathering, paste. humanitarian aid is on its way and rescue teams are heading to the region from around the world. germany is part of the effort ah, packing as fast as they can. there's no time to waste as the german team from aid agency,

international search and rescue prepares their equipment for their mission in earthquake hit tacky. during the rescue operations, they'll have to be totally self sufficient because in some areas, the earthquake destroyed everything. you're missing. what we need to be able to provide for ourselves and others for 10 days was organ code. this includes not only the material we need to rescue and treat others, but also the material we need to stay there in the 1st place. and so con, thus tanks, that's a whole kitchen elsewhere. that's food that's caught eaters, blanket items o'connor are on the tarmac in the spanish capital. madrid, soldiers and 40 fire fights is bored. a military plane bound for turkey. it will be bringing a cargo of aid and a team of rescue dogs to mm. of the search and rescue teams from greece, the netherlands and poland,

flying out to the quake zone in south eastern turkey and more health is coming over land. the 1st convoy from the kurdistan region of iraq, 25 ambulances trucks, some medical teams. q at the border with turkey. baghdad is dispatching civil defense teams to and sending to plains of humanitarian aid to its war torn neva, syria. it's a relief f at coordinated by the red crescent and the iraqi government. ah, that up man, men, 3 tons of medical relief and emergency 8 doors. this will be delivered to the syrian people after the earthquake that hit turkey and syria authority. a marvin, we also sent 150 pound emetics with their ambulances and mobile emergency equipment to turkey home, to help our brothers in turkey, to face these problems. here i am,

one more get hadn't much handled is of help have been flooding in from israel, russia and the us. it's a race against time to get the international teams here into turkey and set up before they can even start to lay kate and rescue survivors. you're watching g w new, steven beardsley is up next after a short break with your business news. i'll be back again at the top. the next hour . thanks roger. take care. i i, she's got issues with awesome. great.