6.1-magnitude quake hits western Turkiye

ANKARA: An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 struck western Turkiye on Sunday, the country’s AFAD disaster management authority said, while local media reported the quake was felt across multiple provinces.

AFAD said the quake occurred at around 7:53pm local time in the Balikesir province, near Turkiye’s biggest city Istanbul which is home to around 15.7 million people, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage in any of the affected provinces.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X that emergency teams from AFAD had started inspections around Istanbul and the neighbouring provinces but that no negative reports had come through so far.

AFAD said the quake struck at a depth of 11 km (6.8 miles), while the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) registered the earthquake’s magnitude at 6.19 and a depth of 10 km.

Meanwhile, videos on social media showed the destruction caused by the latest earthquake to hit Turkiye.

Earthquakes are a recurrent events in Turkiye which lies at the intersection of the Anatolian, Arabian, and Eurasian tectonic plates.

On February 6, 2023, a 7.8-magnitude quake hit southern Turkey and northern Syria, killing more than 40,000 people and erasing entire cities.

In some of these videos, people are seen rushing outside the buildings for safety.

In this video, locals are seen trying to rescue those trapped in rubble soon after the 6.1-magnitude earthquake.

It’s a developing story. Details to follow