Another massive earthquake of 6.4 magnitude jolted Turkey and Syria on Monday.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu says three people were killed and 213 injured in the new earthquake. Search and rescue efforts are underway.
Monday’s quake, this time with a magnitude of 6.4, was centred near the southern Turkish city of Antakya and was felt in Syria, Egypt and Lebanon.
It struck at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said.
In Samandag, where the country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority AFAD reported one person dead, residents said more buildings collapsed but most of the town had already fled after the initial earthquakes. Mounds of debris and discarded furniture lined the dark, abandoned streets.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on a visit to Turkey that Washington would help “for as long as it takes” as rescue operations in the wake of the February 6 earthquake and its aftershocks were winding down, and focus turned toward urgent shelter and reconstruction work.
The death count from the quakes two weeks ago rose to 41,156 in Turkey, AFAD said on Monday, and it was expected to climb further, with 385,000 apartments known to have been destroyed or seriously damaged and many people still missing.
President Tayyip Erdogan said construction work on nearly 200,000 apartments in 11 earthquake-hit provinces of Turkey would begin next month.
