Ten Deadliest Quakes of the 21st Century

A picture taken with a drone shows a general view over an area with many collapsed buildings after a powerful earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Türkiye, 13 February 2023. (EPA)
A picture taken with a drone shows a general view over an area with many collapsed buildings after a powerful earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Türkiye, 13 February 2023. (EPA)
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Ten Deadliest Quakes of the 21st Century

A picture taken with a drone shows a general view over an area with many collapsed buildings after a powerful earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Türkiye, 13 February 2023. (EPA)
A picture taken with a drone shows a general view over an area with many collapsed buildings after a powerful earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Türkiye, 13 February 2023. (EPA)

The massive earthquake that struck Türkiye and Syria on February 6 is the fifth-deadliest this century.

Here is a list of the 10 worst quakes since 2000, ranked by death toll:

2004: 230,000 dead, southeast Asia

On December 26, a massive 9.1-magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of Sumatra, triggering a tsunami that kills more than 230,000 people throughout the region, including 170,000 in Indonesia alone.

Waves 30 meters (100 feet) high, travelling at 700 kilometers per hour (435 miles per hour), swallow everything in their path.

2010: 200,000 dead, Haiti

A magnitude 7 quake on January 12 devastates the capital Port-au-Prince and the surrounding region.

The quake cuts the country off from the rest of the world for 24 hours, killing over 200,000 people, leaving 1.5 million homeless and shattering much of Haiti's frail infrastructure.

In October the same year, Haiti is also hit by a cholera epidemic introduced by Nepalese peacekeepers who arrived after the quake. It kills more than 10,000 people.

2008: 87,000 dead, Sichuan

More than 87,000 people, including 5,335 school pupils, are left dead or missing when a 7.9-magnitude quake strikes southwestern Sichuan province on May 12.

The quake causes outrage after it emerges 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

An October 8 earthquake kills more than 73,000 people, the vast majority in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province and the Pakistani-administered zone of Kashmir.

A further 3.5 million are displaced.

2023: 35,000 dead, Türkiye and Syria

On February 6, a 7.8-magnitude quake strikes near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, close to the Syrian border.

The biggest quake in Türkiye in nearly a century, which is followed by a 7.5 magnitude tremor, reduces entire neighborhoods of cities in southeastern Türkiye and the north of war-ravaged Syria to rubble.

On February 13, the toll hits 35,224.

2003: 31,000 dead, Bam (Iran)

A 6.6-magnitude quake in southeastern Iran on December 26 destroys the ancient mud-brick city of Bam, killing at least 31,000 people.

Nearly 80 percent of Bam's infrastructure is damaged and the desert citadel, once considered the world's largest adobe building, crumbles.

2001: 20,000 dead, India

A massive 7.7-magnitude earthquake on January 26 hits the western Indian state of Gujarat, killing more than 20,000 people.

The quake flattens buildings across the state, with many fatalities in the town of Bhuj near the border with Pakistan.

2011: 18,500 dead, Japan

On March 11, Japan is struck by an enormous 9.0-magnitude earthquake, unleashing a towering tsunami.

Around 18,500 people are left dead or missing as the wall of water travelling at the speed of a jet plane levels communities along the northeastern coast.

The ensuing meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant blankets nearby areas with radiation, rendering some towns uninhabitable for years and displacing tens of thousands of residents.

2015: 9,000 dead, Nepal

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake on April 25 strikes in central Nepal, triggering avalanches and landslides across the Himalayan nation, destroying schools and hospitals.

The quake kills almost 9,000 people and renders millions homeless. It also reduces more than a hundred monuments to rubble, including centuries-old temples and royal palaces in the Kathmandu valley.

2006: 6,000 dead, Java

On May 26, a 6.3-magnitude quake rocks the southern coast of the Indonesian island of Java, near the city of Yogyakarta, killing around 6,000 people.

More than 420,000 are left homeless and around 157,000 houses are destroyed.



Zelensky Condemns Russian 'Inhumane' Attack On Energy Grid

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (Telegram channel)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (Telegram channel)
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Zelensky Condemns Russian 'Inhumane' Attack On Energy Grid

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (Telegram channel)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (Telegram channel)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced Wednesday an "inhumane" attack from Russia, which launched over 170 missiles and drones, knocking out power in several regions on Christmas Day and killing an energy worker.

The country woke up at 5:30 am (0330 GMT) to an air raid alarm, followed shortly by air force reports that Russia had launched Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea.

"Putin deliberately chose Christmas to attack. What could be more inhumane? More than 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and more than a hundred attack drones. The target is our energy system," Zelensky said, AFP reported.

This was the 13th large-scale strike on Ukraine's energy system this year, the latest in Russia's campaign targeting the power grid during winter.

"Russian evil will not break Ukraine and will not ruin Christmas," Zelensky said.

Russia meanwhile said five people had died in Ukrainian strikes and from a falling drone in the border region of Kursk and in North Ossetia in the Caucasus.

Ukraine said its air force downed 58 out of 79 Russian-launched missiles. It did not, however, down the two North Korean-made KN-23 ballistic missiles launched by Russia.

US President Joe Biden called "outrageous" the strikes that cut off people's access to heat and electricity amid winter conditions.

"I have directed the Department of Defense to continue its surge of weapons deliveries to Ukraine, and the United States will continue to work tirelessly to strengthen Ukraine's position in its defense against Russian forces," he added in a statement.

Ukraine has been urging allies to send more aid to fend off aerial strikes and push back troops on the ground.

Earlier, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the strikes.

"I pay tribute to the resilience of the Ukrainian people, and the leadership of President Zelensky, in the face of further drone and missile attacks from Putin's bloody and brutal war machine with no respite even at Christmas," Starmer said.

Kyiv also said a Russian missile went through Moldovan and Romanian airspace, but Romania said it detected no such violation.

Moldova, which has expressed solidarity with Ukraine since the war, "confirmed a violation" of its airspace later Wednesday.

While its military radar did not identify the missile, "Russia deliberately flew these devices at a very low altitude to avoid detection", a presidency spokesperson told AFP.

Ukraine's DTEK energy company said the attack severely damaged equipment at thermal power plants.

"Denying light and warmth to millions of peace-loving people as they celebrate Christmas is a depraved and evil act that must be answered," the company's CEO Maxim Timchenko said.

The employee of a Ukrainian thermal power plant was killed in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, over which 42 missiles were shot down, governor Sergiy Lysak said.

Heating was cut in several parts of the city of Dnipro, said its mayor Borys Filatov, who added authorities were evacuating and transferring patients from a hospital.

"Christmas morning has once again shown that nothing is sacred for the aggressor country," Svitlana Onyshchuk, the head of the Ivano-Frankivsk region, which also temporarily lost power.

Ukraine is officially celebrating Christmas on December 25 for the second time.

The government last year changed the date from January 7, when most Orthodox believers celebrate, as a snub to Russia.

Nearly 200 people paraded through the centre of Kyiv, singing Christmas carols.

"With this march, we show that we will not be discouraged," 30-year-old Bogdana Kuevda, one of the participants, told AFP.

The Christmas day attack also targeted Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, located near the Russian border.

The missiles had targeted the city's boiler houses, thermal power plants and electricity facilities, mayor Igor Terekhov said, temporarily cutting power to 500,000 people.

Kharkiv's governor Oleg Synegubov also said authorities had evacuated 46 people from the area of Borivske and Kupiansk.

Moscow's forces are aiming to recapture the town of Kupiansk, which was occupied in the first year of the war but later retaken by Ukrainian forces.

Outnumbered Ukrainian troops are now on the back foot across the front line in the Kharkiv and Donetsk region further south, ceding ground to better-equipped Russian troops.

Russia said it seized the small village of Vidrodzhennia, a few kilometres south of Pokrovsk, a vital rail hub and mining town.

Both sides are scrambling to gain an upper hand ahead of the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who boasted he would quickly end the war, raising fears that Washington may force Kyiv into a deal on Moscow's terms.