Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/PARIS: With the estimated death toll still mounting from the massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6, it was among the 10 deadliest in the past 100 years.
1976: 242,000 dead, China
According to the APP, an earthquake measuring 7.8 struck near the industrial city of Tangshan Hebei province. The official death toll was 242,000 but was believed to be higher.
Western experts put the death toll as high as 700,000, which would make it the second deadly in the history of mankind, after the 1556 disaster that struck Shaanxi province, with estimates of the toll put at more than 830,000 citizens.
2004: 230,000 dead Southeast Asia
On December 26, 2004, a massive 9.1-magnitude quake struck off the coast of Sumatra, triggering a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people throughout the region, including 170,000 in Indonesia alone.
Waves 30 meters high, travelling at 700 kilometres per hour swallowed everything in their path.
2010: 200,000 dead in Haiti
A magnitude 7 quake on January 12, 2010, devastated Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas.
The earthquake cut the country off from the rest of the world for 24 hours, killing over 200,000 people, leaving 1.5 million houseless, and shattering much of Haiti’s frail infrastructure.
In October of the same year, Haiti was hit by a cholera epidemic introduced by Nepalese peacekeepers who arrived after the quake. It killed more than 10,000 citizens.
1923: 142,000 dead, Japan
On September 1, 1923, a 7.9 earthquake shook Kanto in Japan. More than 142,000 citizens died in the earthquake and resulting fire, which destroyed Tokyo.
1948: 110,000 dead, Turkmenistan
On October 5, 1948, at least 110,000 people were killed in a 7.3 earthquake in and around Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, which was part of the former-Soviet Union.
2008: 87,000 dead, Sichuan
More than 87,000 citizens, including 5,335 school pupils, were left dead and missing when a 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck China’s southwestern Sichuan province on May 12, 2008.
The earthquake caused power outrage after it emerged that 7,000 schools were badly damaged, triggering accusations of shoddy construction, corner-cutting, and possible corruption, especially as many other buildings nearby held firm.
2005: 73,000 dead, Kashmir, K-P
The October 8, 2005 earthquake killed more than 73,000 citizens, mainly in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province and the Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
A further 3.5 million were displaced.
1932: 70,000 dead, China
On December 25, 1932, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake killed around 70,000 in Gansu province in China.
1970: 67,000 dead, Peru
On May 31, 1970, a 7.9 earthquake off Peru’s north coast left some 67,000 dead, many in Huaraz’s mountain city, which was buried by a mudslide.
2023: 41,000 dead, Syria and Turkey
On February 6, a 7.8 earthquake struck the Turkish city of Gaziantep, close to the Syrian border.
The massive earthquake in Turkey in nearly a century, followed by a 7.5-magnitude tremor, reduced entire neighbourhoods of cities in southeastern Turkey and the north of Syria to rubble.
On February 17, officials and medics said that 38,044 citizens had died in Turkey and 3,688 in Syria, bringing the total confirmed deaths to 41,732.
