Death toll rises to eight after another earthquake hit Turkey and Syria

New quake brings fresh losses to residents of Turkey and Syria. Sejal Karia reports

The death toll has risen to eight in a new, 6.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria two weeks after 45,000 were killed in an even stronger tremor.

Six died in Turkey, according to the country’s disaster management authority, and 294 others were injured – with 18 left in a critical condition.

In Syria, a woman and girl died as a result of the panic during the earthquake in the provinces of Hama and Tartus, pro-government media outlets said.

The earthquake's epicentre was in the town of Defne, in Turkey’s Hatay province, which borders Syria, but it was felt in Jordan, Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon and as far away as Egypt.

It was followed by a second, magnitude 5.8 tremor, and dozens of aftershocks.

‘I don’t know what’s harder - being alive afterwards or dying with your family’

Hatay was one of the worst-hit provinces in Turkey in the magnitude 7.8 quake that struck on February 6.

Thousands of buildings were destroyed in the province and Monday’s quake further damaged buildings. The governor’s office in Antakya, Hatay’s historic heart, was also damaged.

Officials have warned quake victims to not go into the remains of their homes, but people have done so to retrieve what they can.

The majority of deaths in the massive February 6 quake, which was followed by a 7.5 tremor nine hours later, were in Turkey, with at least 41,156 people killed.

The epicentre was in the southern Kahramanmaras province.

Turkey-Syria earthquake tore huge chasm in what was once an olive field
Syrians wait to cross into Syria from Turkey at the Cilvegozu border gate, near the town of Antakya, on Tuesday. Credit: AP

Authorities said more than 110,000 buildings across 11 quake-hit Turkish provinces were either destroyed or so severely damaged that they need to be torn down.

In government-held Syria, a girl died in the western town of Safita, Al-Watan daily reported while a woman was killed in the central city of Hama that was already affected by the February 6 earthquake, Sham FM radio station said.

The White Helmets, northwest Syria’s civil defence organisation, said about 190 people suffered different injuries in rebel-held northwest Syria, mostly broken bones and bruises.

It said that several flimsy buildings collapsed, adding that there were no cases in which people were stuck under the rubble.

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