Earthquake Update: Earthquake tremors were once again seen in Turkey and Syria on Monday night. Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said three people were killed and 213 were injured in a new 6.4-magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria on Monday.
rescue efforts underway
After the fresh tremors, the administration swung into action and a search and rescue operation was launched. Three buildings collapsed where five people were reportedly feared trapped.
The new quake rattled parts of Turkey and Syria, devastated by a massive earthquake two weeks ago that killed some 45,000 people. Officials said more buildings collapsed, trapping occupants, and several people were injured in both countries, but there were no immediate reports of deaths.
The epicenter of Monday’s quake was in the city of Dafne in Turkey’s Hatay province, the worst-hit area since the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck on February 6. It was felt as far away as Syria, Jordan, Cyprus, Israel and Egypt. And then there was another, 5.8 magnitude earthquake.
Hatay’s mayor, Lutfu Savas, said several buildings collapsed in the new quake, trapping people inside. He told NTV television that these could be people who had returned to homes or were trying to remove their furniture from damaged buildings.
There were no immediate reports of anyone being killed. Turkey’s Vice President Fuat Oktay said at least eight people were hospitalized in Turkey. Syria’s state news agency SANA reported that six people were injured by falling debris in Aleppo.
In Hatay, police search teams rescued a man who was trapped inside a 3-story building and were trying to reach three other people, Haberturk television reported.
The February 6 earthquake killed about 45,000 people in both countries – most of them in Turkey, where more than 150,000 people are in temporary shelters. Turkish authorities have since recorded more than 6,000 aftershocks.
Haberturk journalists reporting from Hatay said Monday’s earthquake shook them strongly and they clung to each other to avoid falling.
In the Turkish city of Adana, eyewitness Alejandro Malavar said people took to the streets carrying blankets in their cars. Malavar said that everyone is really scared and “no one wants to go back to their homes.”
The Syrian opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, reported that several people were injured in Syria’s rebel-held northwest after they jumped from buildings or by falling debris in the town of Jindris. injured, in what was one of the worst affected cities. From the February 6 earthquake.
The White Helmets said several damaged and abandoned buildings in Syria’s northwest collapsed without injuring anyone.
The Syrian American Medical Society, which runs hospitals in northern Syria, said it has treated several patients – including a 7-year-old boy – who suffered heart attacks due to fear following the new quake.
Oktay said inspections for damage were underway in Hatay, and urged citizens to stay away from damaged buildings and follow rescue teams’ instructions carefully.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Hatay on Monday and said his government would begin construction of some 200,000 new homes in the quake-ravaged area early next month.
Erdogan said the new buildings would be no higher than three or four floors, would be built on solid ground and to high standards and in consultation with “professors of geophysics, geotechnical, geology and seismology” and other experts.
The Turkish leader said that the destroyed cultural monuments would be rebuilt according to their “historical and cultural texture”.
Erdogan said that about 1.6 million people are currently being held in temporary shelters. Turkish disaster management agency AFAD on Monday raised the death toll from the February 6 earthquake in Turkey to 41,156. This brings the total death toll in both Turkey and Syria to 44,844.
Search and rescue operations have been called off for survivors in most of the quake zone, but AFAD chief Yunus Sezer said search teams were continuing their efforts in more than a dozen collapsed buildings – mostly in Hatay province.
There were no signs of survival under the rubble as three members of a family – a mother, father and a 12-year-old boy – were pulled out of a collapsed building in Hatay on Saturday. Later the boy died.
More than 110,000 buildings in 11 quake-hit Turkish provinces were either destroyed or damaged so severely that they needed to be demolished by the February 6 quake, officials said.
The European Union’s health agency warned on Monday of the risk of further spread of the disease in the coming weeks. The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control stated that “food and water-borne diseases, respiratory infections and vaccine-preventable infections are a risk in the coming period, with outbreaks likely to occur, especially with survivors moving into temporary shelters.” “
“An increase in cholera cases in affected areas is a significant possibility in the coming weeks,” it said, noting that authorities in northwestern Syria have reported thousands of cases of the disease since last September and a planned vaccination campaign has been delayed. happened. Earthquake
(with AP input)