Turkey-Syria border region hit by new quakes

A new magnitude 6.3 earthquake on Monday hit Turkey and Syria’s border region, killing three people, weeks after devastating quakes killed tens of thousands of people.

More than 200 people have also been injured in Turkey as buildings collapsed trapping some people. Dozens of injuries were also recorded in neighbouring Syria.

Monday’s earthquake was centred in the town of Defne, in Turkey’s Hatay province, one the worst-hit regions in the magnitude 7.8 and 7.6 earthquakes that struck on February 6. It was felt in Syria, Jordan, Cyprus, Israel and as far away as Egypt, and followed by a second, 5.8 magnitude temblor.

Turkish interior minister Suleyman Soylu said three people were killed and 213 injured. Search and rescue efforts were under way in three collapsed buildings where six people were believed trapped.

In Hatay, police rescued one person trapped inside a three-storey building and were trying to reach three others inside, HaberTurk television reported. It said those trapped included movers helping people shift furniture and other belongings from the building that was damaged in a previous quake.

Syria’s state news agency, SANA, reported that six people were injured in Aleppo by falling debris. The White Helmets, northwest Syria’s civil defence organisation, reported more than 130 injuries, most of them non-life threatening, including fractures and cases of people fainting from fear, while a number of buildings in areas already damaged by the earthquakes collapsed.