A new earthquake, of magnitude 5.6, shook on Monday the province of Malatya, in the southeast of Turkey, already affected by the strong earthquakes of February 6. The death of at least one person was reported while another 70 received injuries.
The tremor, with its epicenter about ten kilometers south of the provincial capital of Malatya in south-central Anatolia, struck at 09:05 GMT.
#WE EXPAND | At least one dead and 70 injured after a magnitude 5.6 earthquake in the Turkish province of Malatya, in the east of the country https://t.co/7lbuPUPxd2
— Europa Press (@europapress) February 27, 2023
An hour and a half after the earthquake, rescue teams managed to get a person trapped under the rubble alive, reported several international media.
As detailed by the Minister of Education, Mahmut Özer, the rescue teams initially saved 5 people from the rubble caused by today’s tremor, which demolished 22 buildings and forced 20 people to be taken to hospital.
The mayor of the Yesilyurt municipality, where the epicenter is located, told reporters that a father and daughter had been trapped by debris as they entered a house damaged by previous earthquakes to collect belongings.
Malatya is one of 11 provinces affected by the 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes that devastated southeastern Turkey and northern Syria three weeks ago, killing more than 43,000 people in Turkey and destroying more than 170,000 buildings.
With just over 4,000 buildings demolished or severely affected, Malatya is one of the relatively moderately affected areas.
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Since the day of the earthquakes, almost two million people survive in tents and prefabricated shelters in the region, which does not stop shaking, or in various reception institutions throughout the country.
In recent weeks there have been numerous aftershocks, several of them above magnitude 5, relatively common in Turkey and which normally do not cause damage, but now pose a huge risk due to the collapse of already damaged buildings.
With information from Efe and Europa Press
