USM PENANG, 6 February 2023 – The communities of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) from all campuses joined the rest of the country to pray for the earthquake victims in Syria and Turkiye for their lives to be given relief by Allah s.w.t.

“We pray that the efforts of those involved in the incident and rescue missions for the earthquake victims will run smoothly, while we also pray that Allah s.w.t. will help USM to bring prosperity to everyone,” said the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dato’ Ir. Dr. Abdul Rahman Mohamed.

More than 1,000 people killed and more than 5,000 wounded in one of the massive earthquakes in recent years. Many buildings have collapsed and rescue teams have been deployed to search for survivors under huge piles of rubble.

The quake, one of the strongest to hit the region in more than 100 years, struck 23 kilometers (14.2 miles) east of Nurdagi, in Turkey's Gaziantep province, at a depth of 24.1 kilometers.

The 7.8 magnitude tremor struck at 04:17 local time (01:17 GMT) at a depth of 17.9km (11 miles) near the city of Gaziantep.

Text: Hafiz Meah Ghouse Meah/Infographic: Ebrahim Abdul Manan