Ankara (EFE).- At least three people died and another 213 were injured in two new earthquakes of magnitude 6.4 and 5.8 in the Turkish province of hatai. This province is one of the eleven that two weeks ago were devastated by two earthquakes. The tremors killed at least 41,000 people and injured more than 105,000.
This was announced by the Minister of the Interior, Suleyman Soylu. He also warned of the possibility that there are more people trapped in the ruins of the buildings that passed today.
“We will try to collect more information about collapsed buildings,” the minister said. He then also reported that there have been at least 20 aftershocks after today’s earthquakes.
The minister indicated that search work is being carried out for people trapped in three buildings that have collapsed.
The main tremor occurred at around 17:04 GMT in the Defne district, south of the city of Antioch, in Hatay province. This was announced by AFAD, the Turkish emergency management agency, and the other three minutes later.
tsunami warning
The initial tsunami alert, due to the proximity of the epicenter to the Mediterranean coast, was canceled shortly after by the authorities.
Turkey’s Vice President Fuat Oktay said eight people were hospitalized with injuries. He warned the population not to enter the buildings.
Refik Eryilmaz, mayor of Samandag, the nearby coastal town where today’s second quake struck, measuring 5.8, told NTV that several buildings collapsed. He said it is not known if there were people inside.
He also said that it is possible that some residents had taken refuge from the intense cold in the remains of buildings damaged in the earthquakes two weeks ago. And he desperately demanded the sending of tents to house the population.
Both Antioch and Samandag have been left in the dark, making it difficult to determine if people are trapped in the buildings that have now collapsed.
“There are collapsed buildings. People are horrified. There were no people in the collapsed buildings. I see collapsed buildings but I think there were no people inside,” Hatay College of Architects president Mustafa Özçelik told HalkTV.
Suzan Sahin, a Hatay MP from the CHP party, told the HalkTV station that nine buildings have collapsed and that there are surely deaths, although she could not specify how many.
Ahmet Övgün Ercan, a prestigious geophysicist from the Istanbul Technical University, told the HalkTV station that this earthquake, which he estimated to last 17 seconds, is a normal phenomenon and anticipated that some already damaged buildings would have collapsed.
Lütfü Savas, mayor of Antioquia, whose urban center is ten kilometers from the epicenter, asserted that several buildings have collapsed with people inside.
buildings are not habitable
Since the earthquake on the 6th, none of the buildings in Antioquia are still habitable, but there are debris removal work teams that may have been trapped by a collapse.
In addition, many survivors are in the habit of gathering around campfires in front of collapsed buildings to help identify bodies. And they may be at risk if a neighboring building that is still standing collapses.
«It was terrible, broken windows have fallen on us. Everyone has left the shops in a panic. With the darkness you cannot yet see what has happened. This was told to EFE by telephone by Ugur Sahin, a reporter for the BirGün newspaper.
AFAD has also reported that there have been several aftershocks of magnitude 4.
Hatay province, where the new quakes have struck, is one of eleven that were devastated two weeks ago by magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes that demolished thousands of buildings, killing at least 41,000 people. and injured more than 105,000.
With the search for survivors almost complete, it is feared that there may still be tens of thousands of bodies in the rubble. EFE
