Christian Atsu trapped under rubble in Turkey after massive earthquake

• Earthquake in Turkey left many people stranded under debris.
• Atsu among those still missing as search rescue operation gets underway.
• Turkey and Syria were both hit by the strongest earthquake in nearly a century.

A major earthquake in Turkey has left many people stranded under debris, including Ghanaian winger Christian Atsu.

Atsu joined Super Lig club Hataysport last summer after previously playing for Premier League clubs Chelsea and Newcastle United.

“Several members of his [Atsu] new team had to be rescued after the earthquake and Atsu is now reported to be amongst those still missing as a search and rescue operation gets underway. The club’s sporting director, Taner Savut, is also trapped as efforts to free them continue,”.

It should be recalled that on Monday, Turkey and Syria were both hit by the strongest earthquake in nearly a century, which killed nearly 1,800 people while they slept, destroyed buildings, and sent shocks as far away as Greenland.

In an area where millions of people have left the civil war in Syria and other crises, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck early in the morning and was followed by a little lesser one hours later completely destroyed large portions of the Turkish cities.

Rescuers peeled back debris with heavy machinery and their bare hands in search of survivors, some of whom they could hear pleading for assistance from beneath the debris.

“Since I live in an earthquake zone, I am used to being shaken,” said Melisa Salman, a reporter in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras.

“But that was the first time we have ever experienced anything like that,” the 23-year-old said..

“We thought it was the apocalypse.”

The head of Syria´s National Earthquake Centre, Raed Ahmed, called it “the biggest earthquake recorded in the history of the centre”.

Turkey is located in one of the seismically active regions of the planet.

In 1999, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the Turkish area of Duzce, causing more than 17,000 fatalities, including roughly 1,000 in Istanbul.

Experts have long warned that Istanbul, a 16 million-person megalopolis full of unstable homes, might be completely destroyed by a powerful earthquake.

When Turkey recently experienced a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, 33,000 people died in the eastern region of Erzincan.