Ankara: A moderately strong earthquake struck central Turkey on Thursday, the country’s disaster management agency said, causing damage to some buildings in Tokat province, some 450 km from the capital Ankara. However, there are no immediate reports of any deaths or serious injuries so far.
Tremors were felt in neighbouring provinces, including in Yozgat, where a two-story building collapsed, according to the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency. Several mudbrick and wooden homes and barns were damaged in the village of Bugdayli, near Sulusaray, according to Tokat’s governor Numan Hatipoglu.
Turkey lies on active fault lines and earthquakes are frequent. Earlier in the day, Sulusaray was hit by two other earthquakes, measuring magnitude 4.7 and magnitude 4.1. This comes over a year after a devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck parts of southern Turkey and neighbouring Syria last year, killing more than 59,000 people.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake was one of the deadliest in this decade, caused by a rupture of over 100 km between the Anatolian and Arabian plates, with its epicentre located approximately 26 km east of Nurdagi at a depth of 18 km on the East Anatolian Fault. Since 1970, only three earthquakes have registered above 6.0 on the Richter Scale in the area, according to the US Geological Survey.
India’s government launched Operation Dost to provide aid to the quake-hit region, including sending emergency relief materials, life-saving medicines and equipment, search and rescue personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), specially trained dog squads, drilling machines, and other necessary items.
(with inputs from agencies)