Turkey at risk from earthquakes
Turkey is crossed by two major fault lines, and earthquakes are frequent.
On February 6, 2023, a devastating earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 struck, followed by another powerful tremor hours later, causing destruction and damage to hundreds of thousands of buildings across 11 provinces in southern and southeastern Turkey. Tragically, the natural disasters resulted in the loss of over 53,000 lives.
Another 6,000 people were killed in the northern parts of neighbouring Syria.
More earthquakes hit western Istanbul
Turkey’s disaster agency has just recorded another three earthquakes, all in Istanbul’s Buyukcekmece district.
Their website has reportedly just crashed – presumably due to high demand.
”Buildings at risk’
Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality said there were no serious cases in the earthquake in a statement made on its social media accounts.
In the aftermath of the earthquakes, Kemal Cebi, the mayor of Kucukcekmece district located in western Istanbul, provided updates through local broadcaster NTV. He mentioned that while there were no immediate negative developments, the area was experiencing traffic congestion, and many structures were already at risk due to the high population density.
Second tremor most worrying for Istanbul
It is the second tremor of 6.2 magnitude that will be most worrying for Istanbul’s 16 million-strong population.
It’s the biggest city in Turkey where a fifth of the country’s population lives.
The interior minister says the quake was felt not just in Istanbul but in surrounding provinces too.
No word yet of any casualties
News agencies are yet to report any details of casualties. We’ll keep you updated here with all the latest news.
