Quake rattles Turkiye, at least 50 injured

An earthquake of magnitude 5.9 shook northwest Turkiye and was felt in Istanbul, injuring at least 50 people and damaging some buildings in the province of Duzce, a government disaster agency and state media said.

There were no reports of deaths or major destruction in the tremor, which struck at 4.08am local time yesterday with its epicentre in Golyaka, a district in Duzce about 200km east of Istanbul.

“We’ve almost completed our checks in the villages around Golyaka. There is no severe damage reported,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told broadcaster TRT Haber.

“There was a power cut during the quake, but authorities are reinstating power now.”

The Duzce court house was among some eight buildings in the area that were damaged.

The European-mediterranean Seismological Centre said the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.0 and was at a depth of 2km.

Turkiye is crossed by fault lines and is prone to earthquakes.