Authorities said on Tuesday that six people were killed in the latest earthquake to hit Turkey and Syria’s border region, two weeks after a massive quake killed more than 47,000 people and damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes.
The quake on Monday, which occurred just as rescue efforts from the previous devastating earthquake were winding down, was centered near the Turkish city of Antakya and was felt in Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon.
The quake’s magnitude was 6.3 by US and European seismological agencies, and 6.4 by Turkish monitors.
It was followed by 90 aftershocks, according to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), adding to the trauma of Antakya residents who had been left homeless and living in tents following the magnitude 7.8 earthquake on February 6.
“This is one of the signs of the end times, in my opinion. I had a feeling we were going to die and be buried here “stated the 47-year-old blacksmith Vural, Murat
He called a friend shortly after the earthquake on Monday to tell him they should leave town. “We can’t stay here any longer,” he said. “We’re mostly concerned about our lives.”
According to officials, more than 41,000 people were killed in Turkey in the initial quake, while the toll in neighboring Syria is around 6,000.
President Tayyip Erdogan said 865,000 people are living in tents and 23,500 in containers, while 376,000 are in student dormitories and public guesthouses outside the earthquake zone.
With so many buildings destroyed, up to 210 million tonnes of rubble will need to be cleared, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Turkey representative Louisa Vinton said.
“It would take an area of 7 million square metres (75.5 million sq feet) to dispose of that rubble. It’s a huge task ahead,” Vinton said.
Erdogan’s government has faced criticism about what many Turks said was a slow response, and over-construction policies that meant thousands of apartment buildings collapsed, trapping victims under the rubble.
“We must hold the wrongdoers accountable before the law,” Erdogan said in the southern province of Osmaniye.
In power for two decades, he faces presidential and parliamentary elections in May, although the disaster could prompt a delay in the vote. Even before the quakes, opinion polls showed he was under pressure from a cost of living crisis, which could worsen as the disaster has disrupted agricultural production.
Swift rebuild promised
Erdogan has promised a swift reconstruction effort, although experts say it could be a recipe for another disaster if safety steps are sacrificed in the race to rebuild.
“We won’t run away from the ballot box or disregard democracy,” said Devlet Bahceli, an Erdogan ally, and leader of the nationalist party MHP, adding that the opposition was “obsessed and delusional” for criticizing the government’s earthquake response and for discussing the election timing.
“Turkey will bury you at the ballot box soon,” he said.
In Antakya, one man hugged and consoled another who was crying after news about people killed in the already shattered city after they had entered a building to retrieve possessions when the latest earthquake struck, bringing the structure down.
A rescue team lowered one of the dead, covered in a yellow bag, down a ladder from the destroyed apartment block, before it was placed in a coffin to be transported in a municipal van.
In Syria, already shattered by more than a decade of war, most deaths have been in the northwest, where the United Nations said 4,525 people were killed. The area is controlled by insurgents at war with President Bashar al-Assad.
Syria said 1,414 people were killed in areas under government control.
