ANTAKYA: Two weeks after the nation’s deadliest earthquake in modern history left tens of thousands of people dead, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake that struck southern Turkey close to the Syrian border late on Monday caused panic and further damaged buildings.
The tremors, which were felt throughout central Antakya city, were strong and long-lasting, causing damage to buildings and dispersing dust into the nighttime air, according to two Reuters reporters. According to the reporters, Egypt and Lebanon were also affected. The 2 km (1.2 miles) shallow depth at which the tremor occurred was reported by the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC). While ambulances raced to the earthquake-hit area close to the city center, police officers patrolled Antakya. While others crowded the streets near Central Park to make cell phone emergency calls, two people fainted.
The majority of the population was living in temporary tents following the tremors two weeks ago, and reporters observed Turkish rescue teams scurrying about on foot to check on residents after the most recent earthquake. A local named Muna Al Omar claimed to have been in a tent in a park in the center of Antakya when the earthquake struck. She sobbed as she held her seven-year-old son in her arms and said, “I thought the earth was going to split open under my feet. Will there be another aftershock? she questioned. More than a million people were left homeless and far more people perished in the two larger earthquakes that occurred on February 6 and that also shook the neighboring country of Syria. The most recent official death toll for both countries is 46,000.
The area has experienced a few smaller tremors in the previous two weeks, but the quake on Monday was the biggest since February 6. It was very powerful. Burhan Abdelrahman, who was leaving his tent in a camp in the middle of Antakya city when the earthquake struck, said, “It jolted us out of our places. I called relatives in Syria, Adana, Mersin, and Izmir among other places to see how they were doing. A possible 50-centimeter rise in sea level as a result of the earthquake prompted Turkey’s disaster management organization, AFAD, to warn locals to avoid the Mediterranean coast.
