- Laura Bicker in Hatay and Oliver Slow in London
- BBC News
WATCH: Video footage showing the moment of the latest earthquake in Turkey.
Rescuers have resumed their search for people trapped under the rubble after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck the south of the country on Monday (20/02).
At least six people died in the quake weeks after a deadly quake devastated the area two weeks earlier.
Minister of Health, Fahrettin Koca, said 294 people were injured and 18 of them were seriously injured.
It is estimated that the death toll this time is relatively low because the earthquake occurred in an area that was mostly evacuated by residents after the February 6 earthquake.
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 as a result of Monday’s earthquake were found in Antakya, Defne and Samandagi, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said.
He asked the public not to enter buildings that could potentially collapse and be dangerous.
Soylu further said that at least 294 people were injured in Turkey.
image source, Reuters
“I thought the earth would split under my feet,” Muna al-Omar, a local resident, told Reuters.
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.
image source, Getty Images
Several buildings were destroyed in Hatay, southern Turkey, after a new earthquake hit the region last Monday.
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.
image source, EPA
Rescue workers work in a building that collapsed in the latest earthquake to hit Turkey Monday (local time).
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.
Parts of the walls of several 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.
