- Laura Bicker & Oliver Slow
- by Hatay, BBC
February 20, 2023
Updated 4 hours
Image copyrightReuters
Subtitle,
People react after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Antakya in southern Turkey on Monday.
Rescue workers are again searching for people trapped under rubble in Turkey after two new earthquakes hit the country, killing at least three people.
The shivering, of 6.4 and 5.8 magnitudeshit the southeast near the Syrian border, an area already devastated by the February 6 earthquakes.
The tectonic movements previous killed 44,000 people in Turkey and Syria and left tens of thousands homeless.
Monday’s tremors collapsed structures weakened by previous tremors.
Antakya drama
Turkey’s Disasters and Emergencies Agency says the 6.4-magnitude quake struck at 20:04 local time (1704 GMT), followed by the 5.8-magnitude quake three minutes later.
The three deaths occurred in Antakya, Defne and Samandag, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said, urging people not to enter potentially dangerous buildings.
Soylu added that about 213 people were injured.
Subtitle,
Rescue workers are looking for survivors in Hatay, Turkey.
Image copyrightReuters
Subtitle,
Residents of Antakya, capital of Turkey’s Hatay province, abandon buildings due to landslides.
Reports from the city of Antakya spoke of fear and panic in the streets as ambulances and rescue teams tried to reach the hardest-hit areas where the walls of badly damaged buildings had collapsed.
Muna Al Omar, a local resident, told Portal she was in a tent in a park in central Antakya when the quake struck.
“I thought the earth would dissolve under my feetshe said, crying as she held her 7-year-old son “Will there be another aftershock?” she asked.
Antakya was one of the hardest hit places by the February 6th earthquake.
Ali Mazlum said he was looking for the bodies of relatives from the previous earthquake when the last one struck.
“You don’t know what to do. We touched and The walls began to fall right in front of us. It seemed like the earth was opening up to swallow us,” he said.
In Syria, around 470 injured people are said to have visited hospitals after Monday’s earthquakes, which were also felt in Egypt and Lebanon.
Now you can receive notifications from BBC Mundo. Download and activate the new version of our app so you don’t miss our best content.