A Wirral man was woken by "loud bangs" before he escaped a huge deadly earthquake in Turkey.
A rescue operation is underway across much of South Turkey and northern Syria after a huge earthquake has killed more than 2,300 people. The 7.8 magnitude quake struck near Gaziantep in the early hours of Monday (February 6) morning followed by a 7.5 magnitude tremor.
Liam Simonsen, 37, who lives in Birkenhead, has been in Turkey on holiday since January 1 and was staying in Mersin, 186 miles away from the epicentre. He described how he was woken up at around 4am by "lots of loud bangs and commotion" in the hotel he was staying at.
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Liam, who grew up in Walton, said: "I woke up to the room shaking and all I could hear was bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, lots of loud bangs and a commotion outside. I'd say the shaking lasted for around 45 seconds in total.
"I could hear flip flops from people trying to escape in the hallway and people running to knock on doors so I grabbed my phone and went downstairs for a bit. I then went back up and there was an aftershock.
"I didn't realise how bad it was until my friends started to message me and they said to get out of there immediately because of how high the magnitude was it could happen again. I was due to leave today anyway so I just went to the bus station."
Liam received a FaceTime call from his friend, Ali, who had cut his hair just one day before the earthquake. On the call Ali told Liam he had lost his brother in the earthquake and spoke of how "distraught" he was.
He told The ECHO: "Normally when you're out on the street there are loads of people around, kids playing in the street and in the parks and it was just so quiet. There were no taxis and all the people I did see had their heads looking down and nobody was smiling.
"I've now managed to get on a bus to Ankara to escape. When we were leaving I could see smoke coming from the city.
"Every so often somebody phone will ring on the bus and people just start crying. The woman next to me has been crying for most of the journey, it's heart breaking."
Liam has documented his experience on YouTube, which he plans to upload once he gets to his Airbnb in Ankara. From there Liam plans to fly to Istanbul before coming back to Merseyside.
Turkey's vice president, Fuat Oktay, has said more than 9,700 people have been injured in the two earthquakes and added there was 145 aftershocks following both quakes.
Some 3,500 buildings had been destroyed and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said there were no reports of British fatalities in the earthquakes, but acknowledged the relief effort was still at an early stage.
He told reporters at the Foreign Office: "With an earthquake of this magnitude we sadly have already seen many thousands of people die. We don't know the full extent of the injuries or fatalities and sadly they are likely to grow over the coming days.
"At this stage we aren't aware of any British fatalities but of course it's far too early for us to say that won't be the case."
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