Muslim singer Maher Zain distributes food to quake survivors in Kahramanmaras, Türkiye

By Salih Seref

ISTANBUL (AA) - Iconic Muslim singer Maher Zain visited Kahramanmaras province on Sunday, the epicenter of last week’s devastating earthquakes in Türkiye, and distributed food to survivors with the UK-based Salam Charity.

Zain, who earlier called for support for quake victims in Türkiye and Syria, headed to Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of the quakes, to support survivors.

"We are in #Kahramanmaras city center and the visible destruction here reminds one of a war zone subhanallah. This town is the epicenter of this massive earthquake. Hundreds of thousands of people left homeless. We must help in whatever way we can," he said on Twitter.

He also showed his followers on Instagram the scale of the destruction at the epicenter of the twin earthquakes, saying; "Today, we arrived at Kahramanmaras, one of the cities that (was) affected by earthquakes. It is very hard honestly. I am trying to get a perspective on the camera to show you how bad it is, but the camera can never give (one) hundred percent justice."

At least 29,605 people were killed by the two massive earthquakes on Feb. 6, the country's disaster agency said Sunday.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes affected more than 13 million people across 10 provinces including Hatay, Gaziantep, Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Sanliurfa.

Several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, felt the strong tremors that struck Türkiye in the space of less than 10 hours.