With a magnitude of 6.1, a severe earthquake shook several regions in north-west Turkey. In panic, residents run from their homes and seek refuge in open spaces. At least 35 people are injured.
Dozens of people have been injured in an earthquake in north-west Turkey. As Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on Twitter, at least 35 injuries were counted. The quake, which had a magnitude of 6.1 according to the US earthquake monitor USGS, shook the province of Düzce about 170 kilometers east of Istanbul early in the morning.
As the Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced on Twitter, there have been no reports of fatalities so far. Koca wrote that of the 35 injured, 32 were registered in Düzce alone, one in Istanbul and the other two in the nearby provinces of Bolu and Zonguldak. Soylu said one seriously injured man jumped from a balcony in a panic.
The earthquake was also felt strongly in Istanbul. Pictures show people wrapped in blankets sitting in front of their houses. Some also spread blankets on the ground and lit fires to keep warm. “We were woken up by a lot of noise and shaking,” said Fatma Colak from Düzce. “We ran out of our homes in a panic and now we’re waiting outside.”
According to Interior Minister Soylu, there were 70 aftershocks after the first tremor. Soylu said that apart from some destroyed barns, there were initially no reports of serious damage or collapsed buildings. The Turkish civil protection authority reported controlled power cuts in Düzce. The schools in Düzce and in the neighboring province of Sakarya remain closed.
Turkey is at high risk of earthquakes. In January 2020, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake killed more than 40 people in Elazig province. In November 2020, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in the Aegean Sea shook western Turkey and the Greek island of Samos. 116 people were killed, 114 of them in Turkey.