Aftershocks hit devastated region
- Two new powerful aftershocks hammered Turkey and Syria, both countries still reeling from devastating quakes on February 6 that killed at least 47,000 people.
- A magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit the Turkey-Syria border region at a depth of just 2km (1.2 miles), the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre said.
Turkey to build nearly 200,000 homes in quake-hit region Erdogan
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Turkey will build almost 200,000 new homes in the country’s southeastern region.
He promised reconstruction work would begin in March to build 199,739 homes in the affected provinces.
“None of these buildings will be more than three or four storeys high,” he promised, after the quake caused several high-rise blocks of flats to collapse.
People in northern Syria ‘don’t trust anything’
Abdulkafi Alhamdo, an activist in northern Syria, tells Al Jazeera that although they were shorter and weaker, the latest earthquakes still caused horror for people.
“Because of the previous experience, people have panic, trauma, so everyone rushed outside,” he said.
“Some people got into accidents rushing out,” he said. “Some even jumped from their balconies to escape the earthquake. People here are not safe. They don’t trust anything, even if their buildings are very strong.”
Three people killed, 213 wounded in quakes: Turkish interior minister
At least three people have been killed and 213 have been wounded in two new earthquakes in southern Turkey, according to Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu.
Turkish Vice President Oktay: Eight people are injured
Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay says eight people have been injured in the magnitude 6.4 aftershock.
“We have eight injured people taken to hospitals,” he said as he asked people in the region not to enter damaged buildings.
‘Aftershocks will last from months to years’
Mehmet Kokum, an assistant professor of geology based in Elazig, Turkey, says there has been more than 5,000 aftershocks since the initial earthquakes on February 6.
“This is quite expected,” he told Al Jazeera. “We know in our experience the aftershocks will last from months to years. But it’s going to decrease day by day.”
