- A 6.4 magnitude earthquake has struck southern Turkey.
- just weeks after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed over 44,000 people.
- It is unknown how much damage it has caused or whether any casualties have occurred.
A 6.4 magnitude earthquake has struck southern Turkey, just weeks after a deadly quake wreaked havoc on the region.
The tremor occurred at 20.04 local time, according to Turkey’s disaster and emergency agency Afad (17.04 GMT).
Witnesses told the Media that buildings in Antakya had sustained additional damage.
Earlier A 7.8 magnitude earthquake on early Monday jolted southern Turkiye and northwest Syria, killing people in their sleep, leveling buildings, and causing tremors felt as far away as Greenland, news agencies and Al Jazeera reported.
At least 93,000 were injured and more than 45000 people died in Turkey and Syria.
Rescue workers and residents frantically searched for survivors under the rubble of buildings in multiple cities on both sides of the border.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would observe seven days of national mourning for the victims of Monday’s earthquake.
“A national mourning period has been declared for seven days. Our flag will be hoisted at half-mast until sunset on Sunday, February 12, 2023, in all our national and foreign representative offices,” Erdogan said in a tweet.
World leaders pledged to send aid after Turkey issued an international appeal for help.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered the dispatch of aid to the two earthquake-hit countries.
The quake felt as far away as Cairo and was centered north of the city of Gaziantep in an area about 95km (60 miles) from the Syrian border.
Authorities said 16 structures collapsed in Sanliurfa and 34 in Osmaniye. Broadcasters TRT and Haberturk showed footage of people picking through building wreckage, moving stretchers, and seeking survivors in Kahramanmaras, where it was still dark.
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According to Türkiye’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) the 7.8 magnitude quake struck at 4.17 a.m. (0117GMT) and was centered in the Pazarcik district in Türkiye’s southern province of Kahramanmaras. The quake occurred at a depth of 7 kilometers (4.3 miles).
AFAD said in a statement that 78 aftershocks occurred following the earthquake. Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakır, Adana, Adıyaman, Malatya, Osmaniye, Hatay, and Kilis provinces are heavily affected by the quake.
National Education Minister Mahmut Ozer said schools in Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Adana, Osmaniye and Kilis provinces will be closed for one week.
The health personnel assigned from the National Defense Ministry and the Health Ministry departed from Ankara to the region with two military ambulance planes.
Besides rescue teams, blankets, and food, psychological support teams were also sent to the region.
President Tayyip Erdogan spoke by telephone with the governors of eight affected provinces to gather information on the situation and rescue efforts, his office said in a statement.
The earthquake destroyed significant areas of major cities in a region where millions of refugees have fled the Syrian civil war, inflicting thousands more injuries.
By 9am GMT, 237 people had died in government-controlled areas of Syria, 147 people had died in rebel-held areas of the country, and 284 people had died in Turkey.
The death toll was anticipated to increase as emergency personnel and locals frantically looked for survivors in the ruins of demolished buildings in cities on both sides of the border.
Near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, which has a population of roughly 2 million, the earthquake struck at 4.17 am local time (1.17 am GMT) at a depth of about 17.9 km (11 miles). The first earthquake was rated as having a magnitude of 7.4 by Turkey’s disaster management organization, Afad, who also noted that it was followed by over 40 aftershocks.
