It was followed by several aftershocks, including one measuring 5.3. The disaster and emergency management agency urged residents to stay away from buildings. The earthquake was felt in neighbouring regions, reports said. Many people rushed out of homes in panic.
Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality said there were no “serious cases” in the earthquake in a statement made on its social media accounts.Read more: J&K shakes after moderate quake hits Afghanistan, no reports of casualties
Kemal Cebi, the mayor of Kucukcekmece district in western Istanbul, told local broadcaster NTV that there were “no negative developments yet” but he reported that there were traffic jams and that many buildings were already at risk due to the density of the area. Turkiye is crossed by two major fault lines, and earthquakes are frequent.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake on Feb 6, 2023, and a second powerful tremor that came hours later, destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of buildings in 11 southern and southeastern Turkish provinces, leaving more than 53,000 people dead. Another 6,000 people were killed in the northern parts of neighbouring Syria.
While Istanbul was not impacted by that earthquake, the devastation heightened fears of a similar quake with experts citing the city’s proximity to fault lines.
In a bid to prevent damage from any future quake, both the national government and local administrations started urban reconstruction projects to fortify buildings at risk and started campaigns of demolishing buildings at risk of collapse.
Read more: 4 Earthquakes in 1 Hour: Series of tremors jolt India, Myanmar, and Tajikistan
