NEW QUAKE STRIKES BATTERED TURKEY, SYRIA
A strong earthquake rattled southern Turkey and northern Syria late Monday, killing at least three people and sparking panic in a region devastated two weeks ago by powerful temblors that ripped through cities and towns and killed more than 46,000 people.
Turkey’s disaster management agency said in a message posted on Twitter that the earthquake, recorded at 6.4 magnitude, was centered in the southern Hatay province, an area that experienced some of the worst destruction in the two earthquakes on Feb. 6.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, speaking in Hatay late Monday, said that three people had died after the quake and 213 people had been sent to hospitals. He warned citizens to avoid entering buildings to recover their belongings, because of frequent aftershocks.
Turkey sits on two major fault zones and has frequently suffered from earthquakes. The Feb. 6 earthquakes, the deadliest in Turkey’s modern history, left a path of destruction spanning hundreds of miles as village homes and city apartment blocks were flattened. In places, the tremors formed new canyons.
Monday’s earthquake was felt as far away as Lebanon, Egypt and Iraq.
Frightened people fled into the streets in several Turkish cities, along with Aleppo in Syria and other nearby Syrian towns, residents reported.
Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said late Monday that there had been at least 20 aftershocks.
Lutfu Savas, the mayor of Hatay, told Turkish broadcaster NTV the authorities had received reports of people trapped under rubble. A state hospital in Iskenderun, northwest of Hatay, was evacuated, Turkey’s Anadolu News Agency reported.
The White Helmets, a civil defense force in northern Syria, said on Twitter that several civilians had been injured by “falling debris, stampedes, and jumping from high areas.”