Jakarta –
Three people died after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake rocked southern Turkey on Monday, weeks after a deadly quake devastated the region.
More than 680 people were injured in Turkey and Syria in the latest quake.
Turkey’s disaster and emergency agency, Afad, said the quake struck at 20:04 local time, followed by dozens of aftershocks.
Earlier, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the same area on February 6, leaving more than 44,000 people dead in Turkey and Syria.
Those who died in Monday’s earthquake were found in Antakya, Defne and Samandagi, Interior Minister Sleyman Soylu said.
He asked the public not to enter buildings that could potentially collapse and be dangerous.
Soylu further said that at least 213 people were injured in Turkey.
Several witnesses told the News Agency Reuters that there was increasing damage to buildings in Antakya.
And the mayor of Hatay, in southern Turkey, said people were trapped under the rubble.
‘I thought the earth was going to split open…’
“I thought the earth would split under my feet,” Muna al-Omar, a local resident, told Reuters.
She said that while crying and holding her seven-year-old child.
Muna was inside a refugee tent in a park in central Antakya City when the latest earthquake hit.
Turkish authorities have recorded more than 6,000 aftershocks since the February 6 quake, but the BBC’s team in the region said the latest quake felt much stronger than the previous one.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 470 people had been injured and taken to hospital after the quake.
The strength of this latest earthquake was also reported to be felt in Egypt and Lebanon.
Turkey’s disaster and emergency agency, Afad, said there were 32 aftershocks after Monday’s quake, and the largest was a magnitude of 5.8.
As a result of this earthquake there was fear and panic among the people on the streets.
A convoy of ambulances and rescue teams are trying to reach some of the worst-affected areas.
In that area, the walls of a number of buildings that were badly damaged by the first earthquake on February 6 have collapsed, including a bridge.
Many cracks with deep potholes appeared on a number of roads, making it difficult for emergency services to reach their intended location.
A journalist for the News Agency AFP reported that there was panic in Antakya, the capital city of Hatay Province, which had been devastated by the previous earthquake.
Part of the walls of some buildings also collapsed, AFP reported, and several people who appeared to be injured called for help.
Ali Mazlum, a resident of Antakya, said he was looking for the bodies of family members affected by the previous earthquake when the last one occurred.
“You don’t know what to do… we hugged each other and right in front of us, the wall started to fall. It felt like the earth was splitting open, about to swallow us up,” he said.
In a tweet, Turkey’s disaster and emergency agency, Afad, initially urged people to stay away from the coastline as a precaution against the risk of rising sea levels, although the warning was later removed.
Watch the video ‘Seconds of the M 6.4 Earthquake Hit Turkey When Journalists Live’:
(it/it)
