An earthquake struck Turkey’s eastern province of Malatya at 12:04 local time on Monday, causing new buildings to collapse, Turkish authorities have announced.
The magnitude of the tremor was measured as 5.6 on the Richter scale by Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), as 5.5 by the Kandilli Observatory in İstanbul, and as 5.2 by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre.
The epicentre of the earthquake is identified as the Yeşilyurt district of Malatya, which was previously hit by the twin earthquakes of 6 February. It was also felt in Kahramanmaraş and Adıyaman provinces, which are already trying to cope with massive destruction left by the tremors earlier in the month.
New buildings have collapsed in Malatya, and AFAD has announced that search and rescue teams have been deployed in five buildings. So far one person is known to have been killed and 69 others injured as a result of today’s quake, according to official figures.
Haluk Özener, the head of the Kandilli Observatory said that such high magnitude aftershocks is a natural consequence of the February 6 quakes.
According to AFAD, Turkey’s southern regions have been being rocked by an aftershock every three minutes.
The disaster-relief agency also warned citizens against secondary incidents, which could be caused by boulders falling in mountainous areas, for example.
Veli Ağababa, the deputy chair of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and MP for Malatya, shared a video straight after the tremor showing freshly collapsed buildings.
