Earthquake, new shocks and more victims in Turkey and Syria

There is no truce for Turkey and Syria. Two new shocks of earthquakeof magnitude 6.4 and 5.8, struck the southern part of Turkey and the north-western Syria on the evening of Monday 20 February. There are at least 8 dead and hundreds injured in an area already heavily affected by the earthquake of 6 February. Many were hit by what was already rubble, others were crushed by the rush of crowds fleeing. The earthquake was felt in Turkey, neighboring Syrian provinces, Cyprus, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, Israel and Egypt.

The earthquake of two weeks ago caused more than 47,000 victims and more than 100,000 buildings collapsed or heavily damaged in Turkey alone. With these new tremors, buildings in Antioch collapsed. People have been removed from hospitals. There are more than one and a half million people in the tent cities set up on the street.

In the afternoon Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan he had visited the areas hit by the quake and announced that in March the reconstruction of all the Turkish cities destroyed by the earthquake will begin. AFAD, the Turkish government relief agency, has recommended not to enter the buildings damaged. A tsunami warning was initially issued, but was lifted.

To Aleppo, Tartus, Hama and Latakia, Syrian cities, the inhabitants panicked and jumped off the roofs and balconies of houses while trying to save themselves. There are 500 wounded here according to reports from Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

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