Two weeks after a major earthquake hit the region, the Syria-Turkey border region was hit with another powerful earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale.
The earthquake with a depth of 10 KM was centered near the southern Turkish city of Antakya and was felt in Syria, Egypt and Lebanon, Reuters reported.
As per the local media reports at least six people died in the fresh earthquake while many structures collapsed.
Hatay Mayor Lutfu Savas told HaberTurk broadcaster that he had received reports about some people stuck under rubble after the latest quake. Three people were killed and more than 200 injured, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said.
In Samandag, where the country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority AFAD reported one person dead, residents said more buildings collapsed but most of the town had already fled after the initial earthquakes. Mounds of debris and discarded furniture lined the dark, abandoned streets.
Muna Al Omar said she was in a tent in a park in central Antakya when the ground started heaving again. “I thought the earth was going to split open under my feet,” she said, crying as she held her 7-year-old son in her arms.
The death count from the quakes two weeks ago rose to 41,156 in Turkey, AFAD said on Monday, and it was expected to climb further, with 385,000 apartments known to have been destroyed or seriously damaged and many people still missing.
President Tayyip Erdogan said construction work on nearly 200,000 apartments in 11 earthquake-hit provinces of Turkey would begin next month.