Việt Nam sends sympathy messages to Turkey, Syria over earthquake

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam’s Acting President Võ Thị Ánh Xuân sent messages of sympathy to President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President of Syria Bashar al-Assad over casualties caused by a strong earthquake in the two countries. According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the earthquake occurred at about 4:17am (local time) with the epicentre located 17.9km 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. The Vietnamese embassy in Turkey said it has contacted local authorities to find out if there were Vietnamese victims in the earthquake. The Vietnamese embassy is striving to gather information as soon as possible.