>> it is 10:00 p.m. in the french capital. the death toll continues to rise following a massive earthquake in southern turkey near the syrian border. nearly 3000 people have died and with thousands of billings flattened that number is expected to grow. rescuers are freezing in -- are working in fezing conditions frantically trying to locate survivors. there are scenes of hope emerging as rescuers pulled children to safety. the international community is mobilizing to help a region already wracked by war and economic trouble.

the e.u., the u.s. and u.k. are among those already sending help. ♪ thanks for joining us on france 24. less than 24 hours later and the scale of the devastation in turkey and syria is only beginning to come into focus. two powerful earthquake struck the region earlier monday. the first had a magnitude of 7.80 and was followed by a 7.5 quake. and then dozens oaftershocks. thousands of buildings were flattened and the latest death toll stands at more than 3000. rescuers are frantically searching for survivors and international help is already on the way. we get the latest from olivia. >> high-stakes maneuvers as

emergency teams race to pull survivors from the destruction. thousands of people are now actively involved in rescue operations across turkey in the wake of what president erdogan has called the worst disaster since the 1939 earthquake. in the east of the country, local people tried to free those trapped in the rubble at first light on monday morning as they waited for the rescue teams to arrive. >> i am a security officer. i am responsible for a building. it started to shake. in the past when it has been shaking i've been told not to be afraid because the building has a basement floor. this time when the window shuck i saw it was an earthquake. and i ran outside. >> bad weather conditions have hampered some of the rescue operations with snow, rain and blizzards making conditions on the ground more difficult to negotiate.

there are now fears thousands will be without shelter in subzero temperatures. the united arab emirates and qatar are sending emergency teams, supplies and will help to set up a field hospital in turkey. relief efforts have been pledged from a number of european countries as well as from the e.u. >> earlier we spoke to a freelance journalist who experienced the earthquake firsthand. here she is speaking about the situation on the ground in southern turkey. >> everybody is helping. no one is helping syria. there are 70 people dying. -- there are so many people dying. turkey is very near syria. no one is at home because it is very dangerous. my cousins are in aleppo and

idlib. a dangerous situation. it is very cold. >> she experienced the earthquake firsthand. speaking to us earlier from southern turkey pit monday's earthquake is among the strongest that has hit turkey. it was just as forceful as the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in the country in 1939. we are joined by a seismologist and secretary-general of the european mediterranean seismological center. thanks so much for joining us. we are talking about two massive earthquakes. the first a 7.8 and then a 7.5. was the second quake in aftershock because that seems quite powerful for in aftershock. >> it is not in aftershock.

we have two different earthquakes. the first 1, 7 .8 a 200 kilometer length. aftershocks are normally a rupture. we hear we have a second shock 100 kilometers away. if you look at the aftershock after the second shock, they are trending east to west. have 22 different faults which have been activated. we have a domino effect. the first one has created its own aftershocks but it also triggered the second one 100 kilometers away. which also generated its own aftershocks. >> what can you tell us more about this region? there have been other powerful earthquakes in the past. >> exactly.

turkey, you have the north faults which has broken since the 1930's to 1999. in 1999 it killed 17 to 30,000 people. we are expecting a large earthquake south of istanbul where we are still expecting a magnitude 7.6 approximately. well known for being seismically active. last night when i first heard about the earthquake i was pretty sure it was the one have been expecting south of istanbul. it is a seismically active area. we are more expecting an earthquake closer to istanbul. >> we are still learning more about the damage and distraction these quakes have caused. given their magnitude, what

typically can we expect from earthquakes of this size? do you expect the death toll will rise significantly? >> if you look, it always increases with time which is logical. more remote villages as far as you can. the number of victims increases. it is always the case. i don't want to make some prediction on death toll. what is clear is the first shock hit a more populated area than the second one. the second one there are far less people. the impact death toll is much smaller than the first shot. the first shock has been affecting -- both turkey but also syria. an area which has been torn by war for more than 10 years so the buildings were extremely poor. the death toll there can be significant because of the poor

quality of the building. >> we will leave it there. secretary-general of the european mediterranean seismological center. thank you for joining us on france 24. we can cross known torque correspondent in beirut. i know the quakes were fellow where you are in lebanon. you ve been following t latest developments out of syria. what can you tell us? >> let's have a look at the recent updates on deatholl. sadl the number of people who have died in syria has crossed 1300. some numbers being reported out of syria given the fact that agencies are reporting the numbers. the syrian regime and the number coming out of the areas controlled by the syrian opposition. roughly in both areas we have more than 600 victims or 600

people have died in each of the two differently controlled areas. if we want to look at why there has been significant damage in syria, as a start we need to the city of aleppo in northern syria is less than a hundred kilometers away from the earthquake's epicenter. the city of idlib is less than 130 kilometers away from the epicenter. for city on the syrian coast is less than 200 kilometers from the earthquake's epicenter. the proximity along with the fact much of the syrian infrastructure has already been damaged by the syrian war over the past decade. this is what has been resulting in the horrific scenes out of syria tonight. >> our correspondent in beirut following the latest developments out of syria. even before the earthquake struck syria was already reeling

from the civil war and humanitarian crisis. olivia takes a closer look at the scale of the destruction there. >> dozens of injured people waiting for treatment in this hospital in the idlib province. hundreds more are still believed to be trapped under rubble across northern syria after monday's 7.8 magnitude earthquake in southeastern turkey. so strong the effects have been fell into the syrian provinces of aleppo, houma and in the taki up to >> the suation is so bad because a lot of people are still under the buildings. we need urgent help for the area. we are talking about medical help. >> this managed -- this man managed to escape your he believed his was the only family living in the building to survive the quake. >> we were sleeping peacefully when at 4:00 a.m. we felt a huge earthqke.

i wok up my wife and my children and we ran toward the exit door. we opened it and suddenly the whole builng collaps. >> the white helmets civil defense group which operates in rebel controlled areas of the country since they expe the death toll to rise significantly . buildi collapse's had becom more frequent in syria as authorities have failed to repair and survey dilapidated infrastructure in the war-torn country. >> international aid is already making its way to the region and the european union is among those sending help. we can cross no torque correspondent in brussels. -- now to our correspondent in brussels. how has the e.u. decided to help out? >> turkey has requested to activate the use civil protection mechanism which immediately triggers a response. we saw 10 search-and-rescue

teams from the you make their way over. they are all either already on the ground orn tir way. they are from france, greece, bulgaria, czech republic, croatia, poland, netherlands, romania and malta as well. italy, germanyave offered their assistance as well as belgium. italy has particular expertise dealing with these types of earthquakes and even overnight there was a tsunami warning in italy as a result of the same earthquake. that is how close they are to the epicenter. in terms of other assistance the e.u. is offering, their offering use of the copernicus satellite system for observation. so authorities can see where the damage is, where infrastructure might be imminent risk like a bridge about to collapse or something like that and to pinpoint specific people who need urgent help. in addition to all that can be

coordinated from the e.u. emergency response coronation center in brussels. my understanding is turkey has not yet asked to use those facilities but that request may becoming. in these first hours after the tragedy there is still a major focus on trying to come to terms with what has happened to figure out what needs to be done and of the short term and then it will be easier for ankara to identify where exactly it needs help and where it needs those european search-and-rescue operators to go. >> when it comes to syria, the government is not recognized by the you so is that complicating things? >> yeah, those relief efforts are way more complicated than in turkey. we heard that from commission officials today because there is a question abo who is the interlocutory you are supposed to work with. that you does not have -- the

e.u. does not have relations with sare al-assad's government. even this affected region is a mixture of control zones. a large area is controlled by rebel groups. you already have humanitarian workers there and they have been reporting this is a dire situation. that area is very difficult for observers to get into so we have much less of an idea of what the effect has been in northern syria than what we do in turkey. the commission asked about this day said if the syrian government or officials don't ask for the civil protection mechanism to be triggered they cannot trigger it on their own but they can use he military and assistance programs. the ones that are already on the ground or send new ones. they can send those over without the permission of the government. one option does remain.

russia has offered his assistance as well. russia does have relations with the syrian government and president assad so that may be a possibility pressure would be able to send assistance. of course russia is quite preoccupied at the moment. >> to put it lightly. thanks as always. in addition to the e.u., the u.s. and u.k. are helping out. more on the international reaction to the disaster from camille. >> as the death toll creeps up, the threat of aftershocks looms, countries around the world are rushing to pledge help to turkey and syria. >> several offers of international aid have been made to our country. we have received assistance offers from 45 countries including nato and the european union. >>s rescue operations continue, the devastang

effects of the earthquake on e turkish and syrian populations are slowly coming to light. the world health organization's chief has said its network of emergency medical teams has been activated to provide central health care for the most vulnerable. the e.u. has been quick to react with teams from romania and the netherlands already underway. >> we have mobilized more than 10 urban search and rescue teams from a number of member states. these are bulgaria, croatia, to chia, france, greece, the netherlands, poland and romania to report the first responders on the ground. >> firefighters from other countries including italy and poland have already set off. >> we will rummage through the rubble. we will check for injured people in try to locate and pull out all the people who are alive. >> turkey says it needs aircraft and rescue teams but there are concerns rescuers may not be able to reach the regions that need most help.

difficult weather conditions combined with cracks in the tarmac mean teams may have trouble landing at the airports of the affected areas. >> the white helmets are an ngo in syria working on recovery efforts. we spoke earlier to a representative of the group. take a listen. >> the earthquake made that building collapse. we are not waiting for the forces to send us help. waiting for other parties like humanitarian aid and support. the last year of bombing made infrastructure or destroy the infrastructure. don't have hospitals,

nothing. most of the hospitals in northwest syria have been destroyed by the bombing. there are other places the ngos have made a hospital because of this bombing. no roads. no infrastructure that help us to survive. northwest syria is not equipped to handle this emergency disaster. >> thousands of people are missing under the wake of the massive earthquakes. there were initial reports a well-known football player was among them. we were joined by our sports desk. >> the latest update is a former newcastle everton and chelsea winger has been found and has been taken to hospital.

he has suffered some damage to his right ankle as far as reports are concerned and has some difficulty breathing but he is alive. initial reports from canadian media attached from the -- from ghanaian say he was on the ninth floor of his apartment building when it collapsed which was located in the epicenter of where that took place. very much right in the throngs of today's earthquake. two other footballers were also rescued as was a team manager. it looks like he is ok. it shows the extent of what we have faced today. not only the civilians on the ground but also among the sports community. we had newcastle united talking about their former player who helped them reach the premier league in 2016 p they were asking for prayers when it

occurred. the ghanaian football federation: for prayers. we can expect the official announcement will be made. what we understand is he has survived and we are grateful as a sports community for that news. >> relief to hear a little bit of good news among this. we are continuing our coverage of the earthquake in turkey and syria with our daily fact checking segment. catalina joins us. all the videos are circulating on social media that have nothing to do with the earthquake and turkey. is that right? >> the death toll sores and in turkey and syria following today's quake. consider one of the strongest earthquake state the region in over 100 years. online and on the news everywhere we have seen shocking images of the aftermath of this earthquake.

there are some images from trt world where we can see the moment a seven story building crumbled into the ground or this moving moment posted on trt world on their twitter account. a child was rescued alive from the rubble but there are other images that are missed captioned and have nothing to do with the current earthquake that hit turkey and syria in the early hours this morning. this fire will tweet on twitter with over 1.2 million viewers . this twitter user posts turkey with a heart become oji. #earthquake aware we see this in building collapse. here's the video of this building collapsing the user attributes to billy long to the earthquake in turkey. this video shows the miami collapse in surfside, florida. the 13 story condominium where

at least 98 people died due to the collapse that took place in 2021 in miami. then we have our second example where users are claiming this false claims that show images of an alleged tsunami. we have the video that goes with the claims of this alleged tsunami following the earthquake in turkey with this video we are showing dates back to march 2017. it shows the massive waves hitting the beachfront of south africa. we have seen these other posts circulating weight a bit. click bait hosts where these users as q2 follow them on twitter. these u users claim to show breaking news of a nuclear plant

explosion due to the earthquake in turkey with this video right here that goes with the post of this alleged nuclear explosion. images we are all familiar with i believe that the lungs at the beirut port explosion that took place in august 2020 posted by reuters graphics. >> you have a story about a man who predicted and earthquake would happen in the region but it was not exactly as it seemed. >> there is this dutch researcher who predicted on february 3 on twitter in this post that has reached every 31.5 million views since then. he predicted there would be an approximately 7.5 magnitude earthquake in the region of central turkey, jordan, syria, lebanon. he works for the solar system geometry institute will also

posted this prediction on their website and on their twitter page where they predicted a larger seismic activity that might occur from february 4 to the sexed in this zone. following this production in today's earthquake that hit syria and turkey there was this false account on twitter that was created pretending to be in this researcher claiming there would be another expected earthquake tomorrow on february 7 and this time it will have a 9.6 magnitude in central turkey, jordan and syria. if you see this circulating, this is the false twitter handle pretending to be this dutch researcher here where you can compare both twitter handles. this one is the real one. beware of this fear mongering account following this tragic event. >> a lot of this misinformation

out there. thank you for sorting through it for us. stay tune for more world news on france 24. ♪ >> [speaking foreign language] ♪ >> from north to south africa,

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