7 Major Updates: Fresh powerful earthquakes rock Turkey; 6 killed, hundreds injured

• Sulaiman
• . February 21, 2023
• . Update: February 22, 2023 12:17 pm
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A fresh 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck the Turkish southern province of Hatay and northern Syria on Monday, followed by a 5.8 tremor several minutes later, centred not far from the first.

At least six people have been confirmed dead from the quakes in Turkey, while more than 290 people are injured.

The Monday evening’s tremor was also felt in Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, and neighbouring Syria and Iraq. Six people were injured from falling debris in Aleppo, Syria’s state news agency reported.

Buildings weakened by the previous earthquakes, which have already killed 47,000 people in Turkey and Syria, collapsed in both countries owing to the fresh ones on Monday.

7 Major Updates

1. World Health Organisation head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has raised concerns over “ongoing tremors” in the two countries.
2. Authorities have urged residents to avoid entering potentially dangerous structures.
3. The February 6 earthquakes are estimated to have levelled or seriously damaged 385,000 apartments in Turkey. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised reconstruction work would start in the coming month to build almost 200,000 homes in the affected provinces.
4. “None of [the newly constructed homes] will be more than three or four storeys high,” Erdogan promised, after the powerful quakes caused scores of high-rise blocks of flats to collapse.
5. Abdulkafi Alhamdo, an activist in northern Syria, said “[People here] don’t trust anything, even if their buildings are very strong.” Although the latest earthquakes were shorter and weaker, they still caused horror for the residents, he further mentioned, adding the trauma triggered by the previous experience caused several people to rush outside – with some getting into accidents rushing out – and a few people to jump from their balconies.
6. More than 5,000 aftershocks have been felt in Turkey since the initial earthquakes on February 6, Mehmet Kokum, an assistant professor of geology based in Elazig, mentioned, adding the aftershocks will last from months to years but will reduce day by day.
7. Amid major concerns that water could rise 20 inches due to the quakes, Turkey’s disaster management agency has raised warnings against staying in close proximity to the Mediterranean coast.