The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, regretted the new earthquakes that shook southeastern Turkey and Syria on Monday and assured that the humanitarian teams are in place “assessing the situation” and prepared to “provide additional help”.
The Turkish national emergency service (Afad) located the epicenter of the strongest earthquake, of magnitude 6.4, in the Defne district, south of the city of Antakya, and registered a second aftershock, of magnitude 5.8, with epicenter at Samandag.
In a message on the social network Twitter, António Guterres stressed that his thoughts remain with the peoples of Turkey and Syria, who “face the impact of new earthquakes”.
“United Nations teams on the ground are assessing the situation and we stand ready to provide additional assistance as needed,” stressed the Portuguese diplomat.
The strongest aftershocks from Monday’s quake were felt in Syria, Jordan, Cyprus, Israel and even Egypt.
The initial tsunami alert, due to the proximity of the epicenter to the Mediterranean coast, was canceled shortly after the tremors by the Turkish authorities.
Refik Eryilmaz, mayor of Samandag, the coastal town near where Monday’s second quake struck, told NTV station that several buildings had collapsed and it was not known whether people were inside.
The same source added that some residents had taken refuge from the intense cold in the remains of buildings damaged by the earthquakes two weeks ago, and were desperately asking for tents to be sent to house the population.
According to journalists from Agence France-Presse (AFP), the earthquake was felt with great violence in Antaquia and Adana and caused panic among the population already hard hit by the recent tragedy, raising large clouds of dust in the ruined city.
Ahmet Ovgun Ercan, a prestigious geophysicist from the Istanbul Technical University, assured the HalkTV station that this earthquake, which he estimated to last 17 seconds, is a normal phenomenon and anticipated that some already damaged buildings would have collapsed.
Since the earthquake on February 6, practically no building in Antaquia is habitable, but there are teams of debris removal workers who may have been stranded by the landslides.
In addition, many survivors are in the habit of gathering around campfires in front of collapsed buildings to help identify bodies and may be at risk if a neighboring surviving building collapses.
“It was terrible, broken glass fell on us. Everyone left the shops in a panic. With the darkness you still can’t see what happened,” Ugur Sahin, a reporter for the BirGün newspaper, told Efe by phone.
More than 44,000 people died in Turkey and Syria after the strong earthquakes on the 6th: the earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale -with its epicenter in Turkish territory- was followed by several aftershocks, one of them measuring 7.5.
The World Health Organization (WHO) raised this Friday to 84.5 million dollars (79 million euros) the international request for financial aid for those affected by these earthquakes.
According to AFAD, there have been more than 6,000 aftershocks since the earthquakes that devastated southern Turkey and Syria.
Source: TSF
