“I felt the ground being pulled from under my feet,” eyewitness Mehmet Ali Gumus told The New York Times from Samandag, a coastal town near the epicenter.
Ibrahim Guzel, the mayor of Defne, a district between Samandag and Antakya where the aftershock’s epicenter was, told broadcaster NTV that there was no electricity. “People are screaming for their lives,” said Guzel, who confirmed that people are once again trapped under the rubble. An AFP reporter speaks of “panic” scenes in Antakya, a city of about 200,000 inhabitants.
After the quakes on Monday evening, new search and rescue operations have started in three places in Hatay, according to news agency Anadolu. Three people have been reported dead and hundreds injured so far from the latest aftershocks in both Turkey and Syria. More than 46,000 people died as a result of the earthquakes at the beginning of this month.
Turkish authorities warn people to stay away from damaged buildings that could collapse. More than 6,000 aftershocks have been measured since the earthquakes, the BBC reports, emphasizing that none were as powerful as Monday night’s tremor.
Also review: Turkish-Syrian border region hit again by earthquake