Dead, hundreds injured, shocking testimonies: what harm has a new earthquake done in Turkey?

Authorities are carrying out search and rescue operations in the three most affected areas. Syrian state news agency Sana reported that 47 people were injured in Aleppo following falling debris and a stampede as they tried to escape from collapsed buildings. In addition, at least 130 people were injured in a rebel-held area in northwestern Syria. Most of the victims in both countries were injured as a result of falling debris from dozens of buildings, as well as surviving buildings fleeing into crowds for fear of destruction.A 6.4-magnitude earthquake was recorded on Monday evening near the Syrian-Turkish border in the southern Turkish province of Hatay, the most affected by the February 6 quake, the aid agency reported. Turkish Afad. According to the European Mediterranean Seismological Center, the earthquake, which occurred at 8:04 p.m. local time (coinciding with Moscow), was located at a depth of just two kilometers in the village of Defne, potentially increasing its impact at ground level. . Minutes later, a 5.8 magnitude aftershock in Samandag district of Hatay province shook the area. Tuesday evening, according to Afad, at least two other earthquakes with a magnitude of 5.2 occurred in Turkey. “These are aftershocks along the Anatolian fault line, not new isolated earthquakes,” said Dr Ovgun Ahmet Erkan, a geoscientist from Turkey. Experts from the European Seismological Center said it was the ninth strong earthquake in the region in the past 68 hours. And in just two weeks after the first earthquake in Turkey and Syria, about six thousand tremors were recorded.The earthquake, according to AFP, was very strongly felt in Antakya and Adana, located two hundred kilometers north of the city of Hatay, as well as in Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Israel, Egypt and in Lebanon. Residents of Samandag told the Guardian that more buildings have collapsed in the town than two weeks ago. However, a large number of inhabitants had already fled it after the first earthquakes. Those who stayed in Khatai for two weeks after the first earthquakes said they did so out of fear of losing their homes entirely or because they felt they had nowhere to go. Mountains of trash and discarded furniture lie along the dark, abandoned streets, correspondents for the publication have reported. “It was the first day we decided to stay in our house, only one floor survived, and I used our radiator to keep warm, showing what to do in case of another earthquake” , Ata Koshar told AFP in Ekinci town, Hatay province. , who lost his brother, daughter-in-law and nephew when their nearby luxury building collapsed in the first earthquake. “I was lying on the ground, and suddenly there was another earthquake. It looked like the buildings were collapsing again, and our house was even more damaged,” he added. Muna al-Omar, a resident of Antakya, said she was in a tent in the park when the earthquake hit. “I thought the ground was going to open up under my feet,” she said tearfully as she held her seven-year-old son in her arms. “The road was swaying in waves, cars were thrown from left to right. The building went back and forth. We all injured our legs from the falling debris,” said Mehmet Irmak, 34. , who works for a notary in Hatay. shocking confessions. “Hatay is no longer a safe place. I will wait for dawn, but I don’t know what I will do after that,” added the man, who slept in his car for two weeks after the first quake hit. and lost dozens of loved ones. .Iskenderun Port State Hospital and Antakya Mustafa Kemal University Hospital were evacuated as a precaution, DHA news agency reported, while intensive care patients were transferred to a field hospital. The Afad aid coordination center in Antakya was also evacuated. In the evening, an alert was issued and quickly lifted on the risk of flooding on the Turkish coast.It should be noted that Turkey and Syria, after the first earthquake on February 6, had to deal with massive destruction of infrastructure, an ever-increasing death toll, which as of Tuesday morning exceeded 47,000 people. Over a million people were left homeless. According to the WHO, around 26 million people in the two countries need humanitarian and medical assistance. It is known that 385,000 houses and apartments in Turkey have been destroyed or badly damaged and that thousands of people are considered missing. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said construction of nearly 200,000 apartments in 11 quake-hit Turkish provinces will begin next month. Meanwhile, the United Nations Population Agency (UNFPA) reported that among earthquake survivors there were approximately 356,000 pregnant women who urgently needed access to medical services. Among them, 226,000 women in Turkey and 130,000 in Syria, of whom around 38,800 are due to give birth in the days and weeks to come. Many of them take refuge in camps or are exposed to freezing temperatures and struggle to get food or clean water.