By Abimbola Ogunnaike
Turkish Disaster management has confirmed that three person died and more than 200 injured in a two earthquakes jolted Turkey on Monday, 20 February, 2023, just two weeks after major quakes hit the region,.
A magnitude 6.4 quake hit around 8.04pm local time and a magnitude 5.8 one took place three minutes Officials said more buildings collapsed, trapping occupants, and several people were injured in both Tur key and Syria.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said three people were killed and 213 injured. Search and rescue efforts were underway in three collapsed buildings where a total of five people were believed trapped.
Monday’s earthquakes were centred in the town of Defne, in Turkey’s Hatay province, one the worst-hit regions in the the magnitude of 7.8 that hit on February 6. It was felt in Syria, Jordan, Cyprus, Israel and as far away as Egypt, and was followed by a second, magnitude 5.8 temblor.
A number of buildings collapsed in the new quake, trapping people inside, Hatay’s mayor Lutfu Savas said. He told NTV television that these may be people who had returned to homes or were trying move their furniture out of damaged buildings.
Turkish Vice-President Fuat Oktay said at least eight people were hospitalised in Turkey. Syria’s state news agency, SANA, reported that six people were injured in Aleppo from falling debris.
In Hatay, police search teams rescued one person who was trapped inside a three-story building and were trying to reach three others inside, HaberTurk television reported.
The February 6 quake killed nearly 45,000 people in both countries — the vast majority of them in Turkey, where more than a million and a half people are in temporary shelters. Turkish authorities have recorded more than 6,000 aftershocks since.
HaberTurk journalists reporting from Hatay said they were jolted violently by Monday’s quake and held onto to each other to avoid falling.
In the Turkish city of Adana, eyewitness Alejandro Malaver said people left homes for the streets, carrying blankets into their cars. Malaver said everyone is really scared and that “no one wants to get back into their houses”.
