On February 6, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs directed theVietnamese embassies in Turkey as well as in Iran and Syria to contact localauthorities and the Vietnamese expatriate community to update information andbe ready to take citizen protection measures in case there are Vietnamese amongvictims of the disaster that occurred in the morning of the same day.
Related fatalities have so far neared 1,800, including at least 783 in Syria and 1,014 in Turkey, withmany buildings flattened.
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the earthquake occurred at about 4:17am (local time) with the epicenter located 17.9 km in depth in Gaziantep province. It also detected another earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 that occurred about 15 minutes later near the first location.