Photos: Magnitude 7.8 earthquake devastates Turkey and Syria

A large group of men and security forces help carry a young boy.

An earthquake victim is carried away after being pulled from the wreckage of a collapsed building in Hama, Syria, as the search for survivors continued on Monday.

(Omar Sanadiki / Associated Press)

By Silvia Rázgová

and Marc Martin

Feb. 6, 2023 1:27 PM PT

More than 20,000 people were killed and tens of thousands injured and left homeless in Turkey and Syria after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit early Monday. The destructive quake, which was followed by more than 100 aftershocks, including one of magnitude 7.5 on Monday, caused profound damage in southern Turkey and war-ravaged northern Syria.

The number of dead and injured is expected to rise even as rescue workers make their final push searching through rubble of collapsed buildings, racing against time and cold. Search teams from nearly 30 countries and aid pledges are pouring in, but rescuers are racing against time to pull survivors from the debris before they succumb to cold weather.

Amid great tragedy, a small miracle appeared — in Jinderis, Syria, residents found a crying newborn still connected by the umbilical cord to her mother, who was dead. The baby was the only surviving member of her family.

A young man in the center cries out while being hugged by another man. Steam is rising from their faces in cold weather

A view of a standing building with a large hole in its corner where a small table with a plant is visible.

In an overhead view, people pass collapsed buildings

An arm, dressed in neon orange, stretches from the left to hold a smaller hand, reaching from under a large concrete slab.

A man walks among rubble as he searches for people in a destroyed building

A man carries a small body wrapped in white fabric

People warm up by a fire amid the rubble of destroyed buildings

A rescuer cries out as he helps carry a bod wrapped in blanket, with a human foot sticking out.

Seated outside, a woman cries; and a dusty book lays on the ground nearby.

Smoke billows from the scene of collapsed buildings in Hatay, Turkey.

A man, wrapped in a pink blanket, is carried by a group of men in brown military camouflage jackets

A group of women navigates damaged roads in Fevzipasa, Turkey.

In a top-down-view a young man emerges, head and shoulders, from under rubble, being pulled out by a group of men.

An aerial view of fire in overturned containers following the magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Hatay, Turkey.

A short row of men stands in prayer over a few black plastic body bags. Snowcapped mountains are on the horizon.

A crying teen girl is pulled out from under rubble of a collapsed building

An aerial view of debris of a collapsed buildings near a clean soccer field.

A man walks down a road between damaged buildings and machinery while he carries a young child.

People stand atop a pile of collapsed buildings as they search through the rubble.

A man watches his rescuers remove debris from the destroyed building where he was trapped in Hatay, Turkey

Men work lifting a large block of rebar concrete slab as they search for people among the debris of a building

Women cry as they watch while the emergency teams search for people in the rubble of a destroyed building in Adana, Turkey.

An aerial topdown view of a large area flattened with concrete and debris and mana people walking stop of it.

At left, on the bed, and in center on the floor, two injured men lay, which a child lays on a hospital bed on the right.

A woman raises her hand to her face, crying, as rescuers search for survivors through the rubble of a building.

A man in rescue gear carries a dust-covered young girl in his arms

A child carries two bird cages with birds that were rescued alive from rubble of a collapsed building

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Silvia Rázgová

Silvia Rázgová is a former photo editor at the Los Angeles Times. She joined The Times in 2022 after previously working for the newspaper and other publications as a freelance photographer. Born in Slovakia, she immigrated to the United States in 2000 and continued her education, receiving a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder. After working as a contract photojournalist for the Rocky Mountain News in Colorado, Rázgová became a staff photographer at the National, an English-language newspaper in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where she covered daily news, documentary projects, and features for nearly five years. In 2016, she moved to Los Angeles working on commissions as a photojournalist and continued to photograph projects in the UAE and Slovakia. In her personal work she explores the themes of home, loss, belonging and poignancy of life.

Marc Martin is a deputy photo editor at the Los Angeles Times. He joined The Times in 2000 as a photo assignment editor in Orange County after four years as the director of photography at Times Community News. Martin, a former Times intern, holds a bachelor’s degree in photojournalism from Cal State Long Beach.

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