Deadly new earthquakes trap people under rubble in Turkey

Rescuers are again searching for people trapped under rubble in Turkey after two new earthquakes hit the country, killing at least three people.

Earthquakes of magnitude 6.4 and 5.8 have struck the southeast near the border with Syria, as strong earthquakes devastated both countries on February 6.

Previous earthquakes have killed 44,000 people in Turkey and Syria and displaced tens of thousands.

Buildings weakened by those earthquakes collapsed in both countries on Monday.

Turkey’s Emergency and Disaster Agency says the 6.4-magnitude quake occurred at 20:04 local time (17:04 GMT), followed by a 5.8 quake three minutes later.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the three deaths occurred in Antakya, Dafneh and Samandag, urging people not to enter potentially dangerous buildings.

Soylu said 213 people were also injured.

Reports from the city of Antakya spoke of fear and panic in the streets as ambulances and rescue crews tried to reach the hardest hit areas as the walls of badly damaged buildings collapsed.

“I thought the earth would open under my feet,” Mona al-Omar, a local resident, told Reuters news agency, crying as she held her seven-year-old son. She was in a tent in a downtown park when the new earthquake struck.

Ali Mazloum, 18, told Agence France-Presse that he was searching for the bodies of his family members from previous earthquakes when the latest tremors hit.

“You don’t know what to do… We clung to each other and right in front of us, the walls started to collapse,” he said.

In Syria, some 470 injured people are said to have visited hospitals after Monday’s earthquakes, which are said to have also been felt in Egypt and Lebanon.

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