Fresh earthquake hits Turkey-Syria border two weeks after disaster; 6 killed, 300 injured

CNN Turk showed a rescue team climbing a ladder to enter one building where some people had been trapped after the latest tremor. It said the quake struck while people were in the already damaged building to retrieve possessions before it was demolished.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said 294 people were injured in Monday evening’s earthquake, with 18 seriously hurt and transported to hospitals in Adana and Dortyol.

Yaklaşık 5 saat önce, 20.04’te Hatay’da yaşanan 6.4 büyüklüğündeki depremden etkilenen ve tedavilerine hemen başlanan yaralılarımızı Sahra Hastanemizde ziyaret ettik, durumlarını yakından takip ediyoruz. Hastalarımıza ve bölge halkına geçmiş olsun dileklerimizi sunuyoruz. pic.twitter.com/ViAM4mChki

— Dr. Fahrettin Koca (@drfahrettinkoca) February 20, 2023

Patients were evacuated from some health facilities that had remained in operation after the massive tremors two weeks ago, as cracks had emerged in the buildings, Koca said on Twitter.

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.

Muna Al Omar said she was in a tent in a park in central Antakya when the ground started heaving again. “I thought the earth was going to split open under my feet,” she said, crying as she held her 7-year-old son in her arms.

Hours earlier, US 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 Feb. 6 earthquake and its aftershocks were winding down, and focus turned to toward urgent shelter and reconstruction work.

The death toll from the quakes two weeks ago rose to 41,156 in Turkey, AFAD said on Monday, and it was expected to climb further, with 3,85,000 apartments known to have been destroyed or seriously damaged and many people still missing.

President Tayyip Erdogan said construction work on nearly 2,00,000 apartments in 11 earthquake-hit provinces of Turkey would begin next month.

Total US humanitarian assistance to support the earthquake response in Turkey and Syria has reached $185 million, the US State Department said.

Among the survivors of the earthquakes are about 3,56,000 pregnant women who urgently need access to health services, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency has said.

Major earthquakes in Turkey.#AFPGraphics map of Turkey showing earthquakes above a magnitude of 5.5 according to USGS records, since 1975 pic.twitter.com/TZfn3esIvi

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) February 21, 2023

They include 2,26,000 women in Turkey and 1,30,000 in Syria, about 38,800 of whom will deliver in the next month. Many of them were sheltering in camps or exposed to freezing temperatures and struggling to get food or clean water.

Syria aid

In Syria, already shattered by more than a decade of civil war, most deaths have been in the northwest, where the United Nations said 4,525 people were killed. The area is controlled by insurgents at war with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, complicating aid efforts.

Syrian officials say 1,414 people were killed in areas under the control of Assad’s government.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said a convoy of 14 of its trucks had entered northwestern Syria from Turkey on Sunday to assist in rescue operations.

The World Food Programme has also been pressuring authorities in that region to stop blocking access for aid from Syrian government-controlled areas.

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck southern Turkey near the Syrian border, setting off panic and further damaging buildings two weeks after the country’s worst earthquake in modern history left tens of thousands dead https://t.co/54cTfqiQl5 pic.twitter.com/Gs3b9R78eI

— Reuters (@Reuters) February 21, 2023

As of Monday morning, 197 trucks loaded with UN humanitarian aid had entered northwest Syria through two border crossings, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

Thousands of Syrian refugees in Turkey have returned to their homes in northwest Syria to get in touch with relatives affected by the devastation.

At the Turkish Cilvegozu border crossing, hundreds of Syrians lined up starting early on Monday to cross.

Two powerful earthquakes have shaken the already devastated Turkey-Syria border. pic.twitter.com/qhN1SQfVXy

— AJ+ (@ajplus) February 21, 2023

Mustafa Hannan, who dropped off his pregnant wife and 3-year-old son, said he saw about 350 people waiting.

The 27-year-old car electrician said his family was leaving for a few months after their home in Antakya collapsed, taking up a pledge by authorities allowing them to spend up to six months in Syria without losing the chance to return to Turkey.

“I’m worried they won’t be allowed back,” he said. “We’ve already been separated from our nation. Are we going to be separated from our families now too? If I rebuild here but they can’t return, my life will be lost.”