Deadly new tremor causes more devastation to Hatay province

Rescuers are once again searching for people trapped under rubble in Türkiye after another earthquake hit the country, killing at least six people last night.

A 6.4 magnitude tremor struck near the city of Antakya near the border with Syria, where massive quakes devastated both countries on 6 February.

The earlier quakes killed 44,000 people in Türkiye and Syria with tens of thousands more left homeless.

Buildings weakened by those tremors collapsed in both countries on Monday.

Turkey’s disaster and emergency agency says the 6.4 earthquake occurred at 20:04 local time (17:04 GMT) at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles) in Defne, Hatay Province.

This was followed by a 5.8 aftershock three minutes later in Samandag, Hatay Province and 31 subsequent aftershocks that were not as severe.

The depth of the quake was felt in Syria, Jordan, Cyprus, Israel and as far away as Egypt.

The health minister, Dr Fahrettin Koca, said 294 people have been injured – 18 of them seriously.

It’s thought the death toll has been relatively low this time because the earthquake struck in an area that was largely empty after it was badly hit by the 6 February quake.

Reports from the city of Antakya spoke of fear and panic in the streets as ambulances and rescue crews tried to reach the worst affected areas where the walls of badly damaged buildings had collapsed.

The death toll from the quakes two weeks ago rose to 41,156 in Türkiye, 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 Türkiye would begin next month.

Prof  Görer: ‘Adana and Cyprus are worrying’

Geologist and Scientific Committee member Prof. Dr Naci Görür made a statement on TV100’s live broadcast, “This is what we mean by earthquakes. Because, after these Kahramanmaraş earthquakes, we thought that these earthquakes might have transferred stress to the south and said, ‘Beware of the Adana basin and Hatay region’. There was an earthquake in the Hatay region and this is not a small earthquake. These earthquakes are the faults that we predict may occur as a result of the rupture of unbroken faults that we consider possible. Between Kahramanmaraş and Hatay, the Dead Sea fault was broken to a great extent and discharged its energy. ” he said

Following the two earthquakes on February 6,  geologists including Görür had warned they would expect to see a secondary quake following transmitted energy to other fault lines.

Stating that Kahramanmaraş earthquakes may cause certain movements in Cyprus, Görür said, “Kahramanmaraş earthquakes may cause certain movements in Cyprus as well. We also made the necessary warnings to Cyprus. Stress may have been sent to the north and east after the Kahramanmaraş earthquake. Therefore, faults may have been loaded there,” he said.

Görür also warned that they will be wary of the Malatya, Ovacık and Nazimiye-Karakoçan regions in Türkiye as well.