An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 rocked Istanbul on Wednesday and other regions, which caused a widespread panic and dozens of injuries in the Turkish city of 16 million people, although there was no immediate report of serious damage.
More than 150 people were hospitalized with injuries suffered while trying to jump buildings, said the governor’s office in Istanbul, where residents are on tent dishes because the city is considered high risk of major earthquake.
The earthquake had a shallow depth of 10 kilometers (about 6 miles), according to the United States Geological Survey, with its epicenter about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Istanbul, in the Marmara Sea.
It was felt in the neighboring provinces of Tekirdag, Yalova, Bursa and Balikesir and in the city of Izmir, about 550 kilometers (340 miles) south of Istanbul. The Minister of the Interior, Ali Yerlikaya, said that the earthquake had lasted 13 seconds and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks – the highest measure of 5.9.
The earthquake started at 12:49 p.m. on a public holiday when many children were out of school and celebrated in the streets of Istanbul. Panicked residents rushed to their houses and buildings in the streets. The disaster and emergency management agency has urged people to stay away from buildings.
“Due to panic, 151 of our citizens were injured to jump from Heights,” said the office of the Governor of Istanbul in a statement. “Their treatments are underway in hospitals, and they are not in a deadly state.”
Many residents flocked to parks, school lessons and other open zones to avoid being near buildings in the event of collapse or subsequent earthquakes. Some people have launched tents in parks.
“Thank goodness, there does not seem to be any problems at the moment,” said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a marking national sovereignty and children’s holidays. “May God protect our country and our people from all kinds of calamities, disasters, accidents and problems.”
Leyla Ucar, a personal trainer, said that she was doing the exercise with her student on the 20th floor of a building when they felt intense tremors.
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“We have shaken incredibly. It threw us, we could not understand what was going on, we do not think of an earthquake at the start because of the shock of the event,” she said. “It was very frightening.”
Senol Sari, 51, told the Associated Press that he was with his children in the living room of their apartment on the third floor when he heard a loud noise and the building began to tremble. They fled to a neighboring park. “We immediately protected ourselves from the earthquake and waited for him to pass,” said Sari. “Of course, we were afraid.”
Later, they were able to return home calmly, said Sari, but they remain worried that a bigger earthquake strikes the city one day. It is “an expected earthquake, our concerns continue,” he said.
‘My children were a little afraid’ ‘
Cihan Boztepe, 40, was one of the many who fled in the streets in the streets with his family to avoid a potential collapse. Boztepe, standing next to his sobbing child, said in AP that in 2023, he lived in Batman province, an area close to the southern part of Turkey where Major Quakes struck at the time, and this Wednesday tremor felt lower and that he was not as afraid.
“At the beginning, we were shaken, then it stopped, then we were shaken again. My children were a little afraid, but I was not. We quickly gathered our things and went to a safe place. If it did not stand for me, we will have already returned home. ”
Turkish interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said the authorities had not received collaborated buildings. He told Hoberturk Television that there had been damage to buildings.
The NTV diffuser reported that an old abandoned and abandoned residential building had collapsed in the historic district of Fatih, which houses the blue mosque and the Hagia Sophia Grand mosque.
The Minister of Education, Yusuf Tekin, announced that schools would be closed on Thursday and Friday in Istanbul.
“In accordance with the need for a safe space, our school gardens are open to the use of all our citizens,” said Tekin.
Urban reconstruction projects
Turkey is crossed by two major flaw lines and earthquakes are frequent.
A magnitude of 7.8 earthquakes on February 6, 2023, and a second powerful tremor a few hours later, destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of buildings in 11 southern and southeast provinces, killing more than 53,000 people. 6,000 other people were killed in the northern regions of neighboring Syria.
Istanbul was not affected by this earthquake, but devastation increased fears of a similar earthquake, with experts citing the proximity of the city to the fault lines.
In order to prevent damage caused by any future earthquake, the national government and local administrations have launched urban reconstruction projects to strengthen risk buildings and launched campaigns to demolish buildings at risk of collapse.
The imprisoned mayor expresses his sadness
Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul who was imprisoned last month for accusations of corruption, published a statement through his lawyers, expressing his sadness of not being able to be with the city’s residents.
“As managers and urban planners who have devoted their lives to disaster -focused planning in Istanbul and who have struggled to this end, my greatest sadness is that we cannot be with you,” said the mayor.
Many consider the arrest of the politician, considered a key rival for Erdogan, as being politically motivated. The government insists that the courts operate independently.
On Wednesday, long queues were formed in the service stations as residents, planning to leave Istanbul, rushed to fill their vehicles. Among them was Emre Senkay who said he could leave in the event of a more serious earthquake later in the day.
“My plan is to leave Istanbul if there is a more serious earthquake,” he said.
—Fraser reported in Ankara, Türkiye. Robert Badendieck contributed from Canakkale, Turkey.
