The new strong earthquake in the Turkish province of Hatay (south), the most affected by that of February 6, has sown fear and is pushing its last inhabitants on Tuesday to consider their departure.

The 6.4 tremor that occurred shortly after 8:00 p.m. local time the day before and whose epicenter was located near Antakya, already devastated, was strongly felt in Syria and as far as Lebanon and Cyprus.

It left six additional dead and more than 300 injured on the Turkish side and at least 150 injured in the rebel areas of northwestern Syria.

In total, the recent earthquakes caused the death of 42,310 people in Turkey and 3,688 in Syria, or 45,998 in total, according to the latest reports from the authorities.

The earthquake, considered an aftershock of the February 6 earthquake by seismologists, brought down new buildings and was followed by numerous aftershocks, including one of magnitude 5.8, according to Afad, the official relief agency. .

Afad recorded a total of 7,242 aftershocks on Tuesday since February 6. In Antakya, the seat of the governorate collapsed, while two hospitals in the province had to be evacuated.

“It was as if the ground was going to open under our feet and swallow us up. I thought it was like the end of the world,” Ayse Altindag, 42, told AFP on Tuesday.

“But then, in the night, I wondered why I was still there (…) I said to myself that I should leave. But, once again, I did not succeed”, she continues.

“More than fear, I am heartbroken. Fear, it goes, it comes, but the pain, the sadness, they remain. Because we have lost everything. Not only the house, our things, a mirror or a cupboard, it’s our childhood that has disappeared, our friends, school, the street (…) even the tree where you picked up fruit has disappeared”.

Among the dead on Monday evening are three people who had wanted to return to their damaged apartments to recover their belongings and were trapped there, said Afad, which called on the inhabitants of these regions above all not to try to return to their homes, however briefly.

Kemal Oflazoglu made up his mind: “The roof of the house was damaged and it was expected to collapse”.

Now that it’s happened, “it’s no longer a habitable place, that’s a reality”, concludes the fifty-year-old. “We have a few things to do and we’re going to leave town.”

According to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, visiting the neighboring southern province of Osmaniye on Tuesday, shelter has been provided to nearly 1.7 million people – including 865,000 in tents and 376,000 in dormitories.

He said 139,000 buildings had collapsed, were badly damaged or needed to be knocked down urgently, or 458,000 homes.

The head of state went to Hatay province on Monday, a few hours before the new shock.

This province is the only one with that of Kahramanmaras, further north, where the search for possible survivors and dead bodies continues.

They were arrested everywhere else on Sunday and the hope of finding survivors under the rubble is almost nil.

The last, a couple, were discovered on Saturday.

“We didn’t necessarily think about it before, but it’s true that it’s starting to impose itself on us: we’re probably going to have to leave whether we like it or not,” sadly notes Kahraman, a resident of Antakya. “But, in real life, it shouldn’t be, it’s our hometown”.

Three months before the date – still maintained for the moment – of May 14 for the presidential and legislative elections, Mr. Erdogan, who will again be a candidate, has promised the construction of 200,000 housing units in the eleven affected provinces.

21/02/2023 16:08:12          Antakya (Turquie) (AFP)          © 2023 AFP