Fredericton man loses family members in Turkey earthquake, others living in car

Ahmed Hallaq lost his 13-year-old cousin and aunt in the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, after it hit Turkey and a large area in northwest Syria -- home to millions.

Ahmed Hallaq’s mother was attending to her morning prayers in the family’s apartment in central Turkey last week when she saw the ceiling lamps start to sway.

She closed her eyes and went back to her prayers, Hallaq said, which is when she felt the ground beneath her sway and heard a hissing noise.

She snapped her eyes open and shouted out to her children: “Zalzala!” — earthquake in Arabic.

“We are used to hearing bombs fall and feeling the ground under us shake,” said Hallaq, who fled the Syrian war in 2012 and now lives in Fredericton. “But this was different.”

Hallaq was visiting his family in the Turkish city of Kayseri when the earthquake hit on Feb. 6. The 7.8-magnitude quake and powerful aftershocks affected 10 provinces in Turkey that are home to some 13.5 million people, as well as a large area in northwest Syria that is home to millions.

The death toll, which has eclipsed 35,500 — nearly 32,000 of those in Turkey — includes his family. Hallaq lost his 13-year-old cousin and aunt in the earthquake, he said in an interview Tuesday.

“They were sleeping when the apartment came crashing down,” he said in Arabic and English with help from his friend, Mohammad Al Khateeb, who translated for him. Al Khateeb, who is from Syria, came to Canada in January 2016.

“They were taken to hospital,” Hallaq said. “They died in the hospital.”