A powerful 6.4 magnitude earthquake has hit Turkey’s southern province of Hatay, terrifying those left in a region devastated by powerful twin earthquakes two weeks earlier.
The quake, less powerful than the initial 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes which tore a path of destruction through southern Turkey and northern Syria on 6 February, threatening yet more devastation in a region that had seen many people flee their destroyed homes for the safety of other towns and villages outside of the earthquake zone.
It struck at a depth of just two km (1.2 miles), the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said, potentially magnifying its impact at ground level. It was centred near the southern Turkish city of Antakya and was felt in Syria, Egypt and Lebanon.
Turkey’s disaster management agency AFAD said that the 6.4 magnitude epicentre was in the Defne district of Hatay, an area on the southernmost tip of the regional centre Antakya that stretches towards the town of Samandağ, places that had already complained of a lacklustre government response to their suffering following the earthquakes of two weeks ago.