Earthquake hits near Istanbul

Photo:Depositphotos

Shortly after the main tremor, authorities in Istanbul noted that there were no fatalities, but 151 residents were injured as a result of panicked jumping. No residential buildings were damaged, but one abandoned building in the central Fatih district collapsed.

The Turkish interior minister said the quake lasted 13 seconds and was at a depth of seven kilometers. A total of 51 aftershocks were recorded, the strongest of which had a magnitude of 5.9. More than six thousand residents called the emergency line, but most of the inquiries were informational.

In February 2023, one of the deadliest earthquakes of the last century struck Turkey. The main tremor measured an incredible 7.8 on the Richter scale, with the epicenter located 23 kilometers east of Nurdagi in the southern province of Gaziantep at a depth of 24.1 kilometers. The earthquake also hit Syria, killing over 50,000 people.

Turkey is home to two key fault lines, making it one of the most seismically active regions in the world. In recent years, there have been concerns about Istanbul's preparedness for possible major earthquakes.

Istanbul is a densely populated city of 16 million people, located near the North Anatolian Fault. The city was also devastated by a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in 1999 in Izmit, which killed 17,000 people and displaced half a million.

Source:CNN