ANTAKYA: Six people were killed in the latest earthquake to strike the border region of Turkey and Syria, authorities said on Tuesday, two weeks after a massive quake killed more than 47,000 people and damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes.
Monday’s quake of magnitude 6.4, which hit just as the rescue work from the initial devastating earthquake was winding down, was centred near the Turkish city of Antakya and was felt in Syria, Egypt and Lebanon.
It was followed by 90 aftershocks, Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said, adding fresh trauma to Antakya residents left homeless and living in tents by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake on Feb 6.
“To me this is one of the signs of the apocalypse. I felt that we were going to die, that we would be buried here,” said 47-year-old blacksmith Murat Vural.
He called his friend shortly after Monday’s quake to tell him they should leave town. “This is no longer a place we can remain,” he said. “We are mostly worried for our lives.” More than 41,000 people were killed in Turkey in the initial quake, officials say, while the toll in neighbouring Syria stands at around 6,000.
President Tayyip 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 rubble.
In power for two decades, he faces presidential and parliamentary elections in May, although the disaster could prompt a delay. 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.
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