New powerful quake hits southeast Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s disaster management agency has reported that a new earthquake of magnitude 7.6 occurred close to the epicenter of today’s previous deadly quake, which also generated dozens of aftershocks.

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the magnitude of the latest shock that occurred around 1024 GMT at 7.5 magnitude, with a depth of just 10 kilometers. Shallow earthquakes cause more damage.

It put the temblor near the town of Ekinozu, Turkey, also close to the southeastern city of Gaziantep which has a population of 2 million people and where the temperatures today were hovering just above freezing. Orhan Tatar, an official from the Turkish disaster agency, told reporters that the two quakes were independent of each other. He said hundreds of aftershocks were expected after both.

The aftershock was felt as far as the eastern Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus, where people took to social media to post footage of swaying curtains, while employees working in some high-rise buildings in the capital, Nicosia, quickly rushed outside.

In a televised address, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkey’s death toll had reached 912, adding that about 5,400 people were injured, while around 2,470 people were rescued from collapsed structures.

Some 3,000 buildings collapsed in the earthquake, he said. His announcement brought the death toll in Turkey and neighboring Syria to more than 1,300 people.